Anton Bruckner

What it could mean that after the end of our time an unimaginable eternity begins, how immensity can be formulated musically, is the subject of Bruckner's reflections, which do not shy away from any borderline thoughts - just as catastrophes or the deserted, unimaginable vastness of the North Sea and its last islands obsessively preoccupy him. Finally, it is the thought of death, the destroyer of everything, which increasingly oppresses him and becomes a theme of the last two symphonies. How the music realizes these adventures of thought and imagination in a structurally homologous way will be shown here. Bruckner was anything but a "musician of God". The idea of Bruckner the man and the artist, corrupted by numerous memoirs and anecdotes, still requires rigorous criticism. He was a crisis composer par excellence. Art does not arise from surrendering to pious contemplation of dogmatic content, but on the threshold of the inconceivable, on which it is necessary to hold oneself with all the forces of the ego.

"Kohrs' concise analyses convey an exciting new image of Bruckner. Bruckner's works can be heard anew." Jürgen Stolzenberg

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