Simone Young conducts the Concertgebouw Orchestra Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6

Bruckners Symphony No. 6

The Sixth Symphony is shorter, lighter in tone and less monumental than Bruckner’s other symphonies. Bruckner himself was in the habit of saying ‘Die Sechste ist die keckste’ (the Sixth is the sauciest). Perhaps most remarkable is the third movement: instead of the lively, Ländler-like folk dances that characterise his scherzos, Bruckner wrote a rather dark and eerie movement here, with a theme from his Fifth appearing in the Trio. It was not until December 1930, under the baton of Willem Mengelberg, that the Concertgebouw Orchestra would programme the Sixth Symphony for the first time. The performance was hailed as a success. ‘Although most of Bruckner’s symphonies can be compared to a proud Baroque cathedral,’ one critic wrote, ‘his Sixth bears a greater resemblance to a chapel – intimate and transparent, standing in an open, sunny clearing in a proud forest.’

Simone Young

Bruckner expert Simone Young devoted herself exclusively to her work as artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera and chief music director of the Hamburg Philharmonic from 2005 to 2015. In recent years, she has returned to performing regularly as a guest conductor with major orchestras all over the world; she is making her first appearance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducting Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony.