On the tracks of Anton Bruckner

All choirs participating in the 6th Int. Anton Bruckner Choir Competition and Festival in June 2017 will come into contact with the Upper Austrian composer of Romanticism Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) in various ways: Whether by studying a Bruckner-composition for the competition or by a discovery tour through Linz. His compositions and his brilliance at the organs in Linz and the St. Florian Monastery have decisively influenced the history of music.

Born in Ansfelden, the composer Anton Bruckner has become a cultural trademark for Linz and its surrounding. In the St. Florian Monastery, one of the most famous and greatest baroque monasteries near Linz, where the Friendship Concerts of the INTERKULTUR Bruckner festival will take place, Bruckner found his true passion as a professional musician.

Bruckner spent many years of his work in Linz. Since he had taken over the position of the cathedral organist in Linz in 1855, he was able to dediate his time to virtuoso organ playing and composing. The organ in the Ignatius Church (Alter Dom), on which many of his works were created, was built according to the plans of Anton Bruckner and still sounds the same like during the organ virtuoso’s lifetime.

Since taking over the leadership of the men's choir "Liedertafel Frohsinn", Bruckner wrote many masses, motets and a large number of secular choral works, mostly for male choirs. His first great masterpieces were made in Linz between 1864 and 1868: three major masses, the D minor, the E minor and the F minor, and the Symphony No. 1 in C minor. Already at the premiere of the mass in D minor in the Old Cathedral in Linz in 1864 the work was celebrated by contemporary composers and critics. Also at the 6th Int. Anton Bruckner Choir Competition and Festival the singers of the affiliated Sing'n'Joy Festival Choir will perform parts of the mass written for choir, organ and orchestra in honor of the name Patron in today's New Cathedral in Linz (Mariendom).

The musical heritage of the Upper Austrian composer is omnipresent in the region around Linz. Numerous institutions were named after Bruckner, such as the Anton Bruckner Private University for Music and Dance or the largest concert house in Upper Austria, the Brucknerhaus. On the occasion of the composer's birthday the annual Brucknerfest takes place in Linz. Also one of the most popular international INTERKULTUR choir competitions is dedicated to the composer: the Int. Anton Bruckner Choir Competition and Festival, which in the next year will be held for the sixth time from June 14-18.

The registration deadline ends on January 16, 2017. More information about the event can be found here.