ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND – TONHALLE-ORCHESTER ZÜRICH – BRUCKNER

Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
Semyon Bychkov, conductor

PROGRAMME
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C minor, 2nd version 1890

PROGRAMME NOTE
Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 is a full evening’s work – not only because of its length of over 80 minutes, but also because of its content. Conductor Semyon Bychkov is convinced that everything in this work revolves around Bruckner’s relationship with God, and thus around a “complex and conflict-ridden matter.” Bruckner himself described his last completed symphony as a mystery, but at the same time explained various passages with quite concrete meanings: the Scherzo contains a portrait of his friend Carl Almeroth, the Adagio is about a girl whose eyes he had gazed deeply into, and the “German Michel” haunts the Finale. For Semyon Bychkov, religious doubt remains in the end: “No one will ever be able to convince me that doubt doesn’t exist.”