Bruckner and Strauss: A Glimpse of Eternity

Monday September 18, 2006	7:30 pm	Great concert Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Friday September 22, 2006	8:00 pm	Le Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée; part of the 8th Festival d’automne by Orgue et couleurs [No pre-concert conference] Église Saint-Nom-de-Jésus

Bruckner’s most celebrated symphony and Strauss’s most intimate symphonic poem.

Description

After performances of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony (in 2002) and Eighth Symphony (in 2004), which were acclaimed by public and critics alike, the Orchestre Métropolitain continues the cycle of these grandiose cathedrals of sound with Bruckner’s celebrated Seventh Symphony. Undoubtedly composer’s best-known work in the genre, the Seventh is both monumental and deeply contemplative, conveying emotions of great nobility and depth. Strauss’s symphonic poem Death and Transfiguration is an intimate exploration of a old man’s contemplation of his own death. Bed-ridden, he sees his life pass before his eyes in the course of his final struggle. Death inevitably comes, but it is only a passage culminating in transfiguration.