Bernhard Gander
Evil Elves: Level Eleven for saxophone quartet and orchestra (2019). World premiere*
Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 6 in A major WAB 106 (1879-81)
- Raschèr Saxophone Quartet
- Gürzenich-Orchester Köln
- François-Xavier Roth Conductor
Bernhard Gander’s elves have a dark side: The typically delicate, airy creatures become angry hulks dressed in leather and rivets who indulge in heavy metal orgies on apocalyptic volcanoes. This piece, commissioned by the Gürzenich Orchestra, is a frenzy of metric and rhythmic extremes and the uninhibited lust of sound, and at the same time reveals a dark and enigmatic side. Bruckner’s Sixth, albeit no less mysterious, floods the space with rays of warmth despite its bright tonality. It draws endless arches, and the slow movement is a quest for eternity. Incidentally, Bruckner described this symphony as his most ‘perky’. For François-Xavier Roth, another piece falls into place on the way to completing his concert and recording cycle of all Bruckner symphonies.
Bruckner cycle
Everything about the GO and Bruckner
François-Xavier Roth already kicked off his Bruckner cycle with the Gürzenich Orchestra with his inaugural concert in 2015: »The first time I played Bruckner with the Gürzenich Orchestra, it was immediately clear to me that we had to perform all the symphonies. The sound of the orchestra is fabulously suited to this romantic repertoire. Combined with modernist works, it creates a new perspective that makes it clear how far ahead of his time Bruckner was.«
Thus it was set that the works of this unique composer, should each be confronted with pieces by our contemporaries. Bruckner, whose lifetime overlapped with that of Beethoven, Schubert and Mendelssohn on the one hand, and that of Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Debussy on the other, in the light of modernity.
»In my Bruckner cycle with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, I would like to discover the utopian sides of his work together with the audience. Bruckner, the progressive.«
