1st Philharmonic Concert

This season, each Philharmonic Concert will feature the music of a female composer. Victoria Borisova-Ollas, born in Vladivostok in 1969, makes the start with the orchestral piece »The Kingdom of Silence«. Beginning as a lullaby, this dreamy work was written in memoriam of her late composer colleague Nikolai Korndorf.

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E Major was composed between 1881 and 1883. The slow movement speaks to deep emotions – we are hearing another lament. Bruckner dedicated it to »blessed, deeply-loved, immortal« Richard Wagner, who died in Venice while Bruckner was working on his seventh symphony. Bruckner's spectacular symphonies are frequently compared to the towering magnificence of Gothic cathedrals. Pulling the stops with changes of timbre and choral citations, this work also brings out the composer's beginnings on the organ. Echoes of Wagner combine with harmony and melodic gestures to widen the sacral space.