Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony has long been one of the composer’s underrated works. According to Sir Simon Rattle, this is because it doesn’t offer what people usually expect of a Bruckner symphony. It is shorter, more transparent and less solemn than usual, “a piece full of humour and daring”. Bruckner himself seems to have seen it that way, for he whimsically said that the Sixth was his “boldest”. To open the programme, Simon Rattle conducts the world premiere of a horn concerto written by Jörg Widmann, this season’s Composer in Residence, for our principal horn Stefan Dohr.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle conductor
Stefan Dohr french horn
Jörg Widmann
Concerto for Horn and Orchestra (Premiere) commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation
Stefan Dohr french horn
Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 6 in A major