In a thrilling musical evening pairing Anton Bruckner's groundbreaking First Symphony with contemporary composer Wolfgang Rihm’s Spiegel und Fluss, the Wiener Philharmoniker presents a concert at the beautiful baroque abbey Stift Sankt Florian under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach.

With an enormous output and incredible stylistic variety, the Karlsruhe-native Wolfgang Rihm is one of today’s most exciting contemporary composers.

Unafraid of referencing the works of his predecessors, Rihm’s musical language draws on the legacy of Austro-German 19th and 20th century composers, building on the achievements and aesthetics of composers like Berg, Schoenberg, Beethoven, and Bruckner. For this reason, programming one of Rihm’s compositions with the Symphony No. 1 in C Minor seems a natural choice. Itself indebted to the works of older masters like Liszt, Berlioz, and Wagner, Bruckner's First Symphony shows the composer in the early stages of his relationship with the symphonic genre: still developing, but already the author of an unmistakable and innovative style.

Wolfgang Rihm
Spiegel und Fluss, Nachspiel und Vorspiel für Orchester

Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 1 in C Minor

Wiener Philharmoniker
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor