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Bruckner2024

BRUCKNER2024 is a large-scale project since 2011 by the conductor Gerd Schaller with the aim of performing all symphonies of Anton Bruckner in all versions on the concert stage and recording them on CD. Gerd Schaller is the first conductor who has started to record all of Bruckner's symphonies in all versions on CD. The Project also includes not only all symphonies in all versions but also the intermediate variants. Project partners are the festival Ebracher Musiksommer, the Bavarian Radio – Studio Franken and the CD label Profil Edition Günter Hänssler. Over 20 CDs have already been released.

Anton Bruckner created true cathedrals of sound with his wonderfully emotional but at the same time highly complex music. But like no other composer, he repeatedly fine-tuned nearly all of his works, especially the symphonies, constantly striving for the ideal form and making changes. Therefore, there are different variants or versions of his symphonies existing, which Gerd Schaller and his orchestra, the Philharmonie Festiva, now are recording in their own artistic handwriting within the framework of BRUCKNER2024. The very possibility of being able to compare these different versions directly, interpreted by one and the same orchestra and conductor is intended to help listeners to even better understand the fascinating and multifaceted musical personality of Anton Bruckner.

The basis for this is Gerd Schaller's internationally acclaimed Bruckner cycle, in which several symphonies are already available in different versions on CD, but also the first oratorical and organ works have been published. The recordings of the still missing variants of the symphonies and the other works will be realised in the coming years and will be released on the label Profil Edition Günter Hänssler.

The editions used take into account the current state of musicology. However, this is not enough for Gerd Schaller. And so it is a major concern of his not to neglect the important findings of previous generations of editors. In some cases, he even includes the first printed editions of Bruckner's works, which also convey information that is important in terms of performance history and is worthy of tradition. As world premiere recordings, he has also recorded a number of intermediate versions in the editions of William Carragan. Most important for Gerd Schaller, however, is one's own critical research and dealing with the respective autograph. This led to the fact that he even created his own editions of several versions. Gerd Schaller would like to present the symphonies in editions that are not only based on knowledge that is currently favored and may already be outdated in a few years. Rather, he strives for a timeless overall view of all symphonies that are based on musicology and that are as timeless as possible. important performance-historical aspects are also taken into account.

GERD SCHALLER

GERD SCHALLER

In 2007 Gerd Schaller started his Bruckner cycle with the Philharmonie Festiva, from which the BRUCKNER2024 project emerged in 2021.

Philharmonie Festiva

Philharmonie Festiv

Philharmonie Festiva is a symphony orchestra consisting of selected, high-calibre musicians from leading German orchestras.

Concerts

Concerts

Experience more Bruckner concerts at the Ebrach Summer Music Festival www.ebracher-musiksommer.de

Aktuell

17 March 2025

The festive concert for Anton Bruckner's 200th birthday, which was recorded by Bavarian Television, can be experienced again:

Bruckners Symphonie Nr 9 mit Finale

07 March 2025

The complete symphonic Bruckner

This year, BRUCKNER2024 is entering its grand finale. With the performances of Bruckner's third symphony in the Regentenbau in Bad Kissingen and the eighth symphony in the former Ebrach Abbey Church at the Ebrach Music Summer, a huge project that began in 2011 will end. In 2025, all of Anton Bruckner's symphonies will be available on recordings in all versions, recorded by the Philharmonie Festiva.

03 March 2025

A SYMPHONY FOR LIFE

It is rare for a symphony to follow a composer throughout his entire life. This was the case with Bruckner's Third Symphony. Here you can see the master of St. Florian's struggle to find the ideal form of his child. It is important to note that Bruckner often referred to his symphonies as his children, although he was busy with the child of the Third his entire life.

08 December 2024

The performance of Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony took place as part of the classical concerts of the Ebrach Summer Music Festival. The television broadcast of this concert is an opportunity for Gerd Schaller to reflect on the finale of Bruckner's Ninth:

02 December 2024
BRUCKNER2024 is getting even better in the finale: In January 2025, another milestone in the BRUCKNER2024 project will be officially released. Bruckner probably spent more time working on his Third Symphony than on any other symphony. Since its creation in 1873, he has continued to work on this work, which was obviously very dear to his heart, until he was very old.
05 March 2024
Podcast

On 4 September, Anton Bruckner's birthday, the international jubilee year commemorating the great romantic composer Anton Bruckner has been officially proclaimed in many places around the world.

01 August 2023
On August 20th, another Bruckner symphony will be performed in the Abbey Church of Ebrach! Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva will continue to further expand their Bruckner cycle with the late 1888 version of Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, the "Romantic".
27 April 2023

On May 5th the Gerd Schaller’s new album will be released. After the great success of his arrangement of Anton Bruckner's ninth symphony for organ, which was even nominated for a Grammy Award in 2022, Gerd Schaller's new album picks up there again and offers a new organ arrangement of a popular Bruckner symphony.

03 April 2023

Digital music enjoyment no longer works only via CDs. In the age of music streaming, other forms of use have gained in importance. A younger audience in particular is using playlists from music streaming providers these days.

14 March 2023
With the Philharmonie Festiva, Gerd Schaller recorded Anton Bruckner's fourth symphony in the first version from 1873, which was published by Profil Edition Günter Hänssler.
11 January 2023

As an interim result of the major project BRUCKNER2024, which began in 2011, Profil Edition Günter Hänssler has released a 20-CD box set containing the previous Bruckner recordings by Gerd Schaller with his Philharmonie Festiva.

12 December 2022
The organ is Bruckner's instrument, which stayed with him all his life. Bruckner was already celebrated by his contemporaries as a great organ soloist. So what could be more natural than to arrange his phantastic Ninth Symphony for the organ and thus reveal the essence of the work?!
10 October 2022
After the Linz version, Gerd Schaller has recorded the so-called Vienna version of the first symphony of Anton Bruckner with the Philharmonie Festiva and continues to build on his major project BRUCKNER 2024.
05 September 2022

Anton Bruckner's string quintet is one of the unknown works of the composer. Wrong, according to Gerd Schaller - who has now edited the piece for a large orchestra and recorded it on CD with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.

order at jpc.de

18 August 2022
Anton Bruckner's last, his Ninth Symphony, remained unfinished, for the composer died during the work on the 4th movement - to which, however, numerous sketches have been preserved. Gerd Schaller reviewed this material and recently presented his own complete set of this final movement, which was recorded in July 2018 with the Philharmonie Festiva on CD. The score has been published by Ries & Erler, Berlin.

BRUCKNER2024 ON CD

20 CDs have already been released as part of BRUCKNER2024, combined in a CD box, which will be available in a revised form from February 2022.

SOUND IMPRESSION

The acoustics in the former Cistercian abbey church in Ebrach are ideal for the performance of Anton Bruckner's symphonies. Among other things, the elaborate stucco and the early classical choir stalls are responsible for the fact that the sound is broken again and again and does not overturn. The proportions of this impressive cathedral room also ensure a special sound refinement. The excerpt from a concert in which the 5th Symphony by Anton Bruckner with Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva was performed gives an impression of this.

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