Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony marks one of the most famous passages in music history, though the composer never had a chance to hear it, since it was only presented for the first time some 47 years after his death. The first movement is above all tragic, in spite of the great tenderness of its second theme, while the second and final movement is dominated by a feeling of serenity.

With only three movements, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 was also unfinished. The mysterious first movement, with hard sonorities and superhuman flights, is succeeded by a second movement at once terrifying and energetic, and a third movement — the ethereal adagio — that conjures up a sense of eternity. Undoubtedly the mystical masterpiece by the composer dubbed the “minstrel of God”.

Download the September 17-21 concert programme (pdf)

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