London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Antonio Pappano, conductor; Gubaidulina / Bruckner

Sir Antonio Pappano, Chefdirigent des London Symphony Orchestra – Am rechten Bildrand ist vor schwarzem Hintergrund ein Mann zu sehen, der beim Dirigieren die Arme vor sich in die Höhe hält.

The composer Sofia Gubaidulina who died in March 2025 once admitted: “while I am composing, I pray”. The intensely fragile music of her Concerto for Viola and Orchestra oscillates between “down-to-earthness” and “heavenly aspiration”. Sir Antonio Pappano presents the work with ‘his’ London Symphony Orchestra along with the unfinished Ninth Symphony by Anton Bruckner. Its dedication to “dear God” indicates what Bruckner was attempting to express in music that was literally composed on his deathbed: a confrontation with the “ultimate questions” in the style of a monumental “sinfonia da chiesa”.

Music is for Sofia Gubaidulina the “most important form of resistance of mankind against spiritual decline”. Her religiously influenced works were included on the “black list” in the Soviet Union. After the end of communist censorship, Gubaidulina relocated to a small village close to Hamburg where she remained for the rest of her life. In its “deepest sense”, music is a type of divine service according to the composer whose creative activity constantly revolved around spiritual issues. This is also evident in her Concerto for Viola and Orchestra performed here by the London Symphony Orchestra’s principal viola player, Eivind Ringstad. The composer comments: “I have always found the innate mysterious and veiled tone of the viola an enigma.”

Anton Bruckner was also deeply religious. He spent longer working on the unfinished Ninth Symphony than on any other work (his sketches for the final version were scattered in all directions by souvenir hunters and autograph collectors). Whether the responsibility lay with Beethoven’s legacy, the key of D minor from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony or the symbolic meaning of the number nine (three squared symbolising ultimate perfection), of which Bruckner with his mystical belief in the power of numbers was of course aware, is uncertain. The “solemn” first movement begins mysteriously, as if out of nothing, but is an existential experience that soon swells to monumental levels. The scherzo with a ghostly trio is followed by one of the most beautiful adagios that Bruckner ever wrote: transfiguring sounds that the composer called his “farewell to life”.

Sofia Gubaidulina (1931–2025)

concert for viola and orchestra (1996)

Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)

Symphony No. 9 in D minor (1887–96)

Artists/Collaborators: Eivind Ringstad, Antonio Pappano

A Berliner Festspiele / Musikfest Berlin event

Work introduction

19:10, South Foyer

Next date:

• Date Sunday, 06/September/2026 20:00
• Venue Philharmonie Berlin
• Address Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße 1, 10785 Berlin-Tiergarten