Bruckner and Strauss
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s program was a feast of late Romanticism preceded by an entrée from the mid-Romantic period. The opener was the Overture to Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman), composed in 1841, when Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Schumann were at the height of their creativity. Of course, Wagner was born only a few years after these composers, but his significantly greater longevity makes us regard him as a late Romantic, his major works dating from the second half of the nineteenth century. The Overture was given a powerful performance by the orchestra, and it was immediately evident that the players were at one with Vasily Petrenko’s precise and expressive direction.
The seven lieder by Richard Strauss that followed do not form a cycle, as such, but are simply a miscellany of love songs from various periods of the composer’s life. All were originally written for voice and piano, but all were subsequently orchestrated, mostly by Strauss himself. In the case of Zueignung (‘Dedication’), perhaps the most popular of the selection, the orchestration was done by conductor Robert Heger in 1932.
If only we could have moved over to the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall for this bracket of songs! Alexandra Flood’s delivery was beautifully shaped throughout and her diction wonderfully clear; the orchestra had been appropriately reduced in size. But she was undoubtedly projecting a much greater warmth of tone than that which reached us in the middle of the stalls, and even the reduced orchestral forces occasionally overpowered her lower register.
And so to the major work of the evening, Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. This is recognised as one of the most popular of the composer’s symphonies, and it is the work that boosted him to stardom at the age of sixty when it was first performed on 30 December 1884 in Leipzig. Bruckner was forever revising his symphonies, so it is not always possible to establish his final thoughts on a particular work. Happily, the Seventh contains fewer uncertainties in this direction, and nowadays the edition published by Leopold Nowak in 1954 is the generally accepted version. Nevertheless, even some conductors who use this version omit the percussion (timpani, triangle, and cymbal) at the climax of the second movement, purportedly in accordance with a late decision from the composer himself – though one can hardly imagine such an omission after experiencing the overpowering effect of this percussive outburst in this performance.
The Seventh Symphony is often seen as a successor to Beethoven’s Ninth. Certainly, it is of similar dimensions, and the structure of its second movement is recognisably modelled on the slow movement of the Ninth. But more than this, it is a homage to Wagner, whom Bruckner regarded as the ‘master of masters’. The two composers had met and enjoyed a few beers together; Wagner was appreciative of Bruckner’s music. But Bruckner was aware of Wagner’s impending death as he was composing the Seventh Symphony, and the main theme of the second movement came to him as he was contemplating the demise of the ‘master’. On hearing news of Wagner’s death, Bruckner incorporated his grief into the final pages of that movement.
Petrenko’s direction was masterful throughout, and the same was true of the orchestra’s response. The string section was unfailingly rich in tone, a special highlight being the soaring melodies by violas and cellos in unison. The woodwind were always excellently coordinated as a section, but also featured many beautiful solo passages – especially flautist Prudence Davis’s crystal-clear notes in the top octave of her instrument. The brass, meanwhile, can be thought of as three sections: the first, horns; the second, trumpets, trombones, and tuba; the third, the four ‘Wagner’ tubas, also supported by the regular tuba. All three were outstanding as sections and contained much fine solo work.
A detail that would benefit from a little rehearsal is the response to applause at the end of the evening: there was no small amount of confusion among players about which of them was being asked to stand and acknowledge the audience.
Bruckner and Strauss (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra) was performed at Hamer Hall on 3 and 5 October 2025 and at the Geelong Arts Centre on 4 October 2025. Performance attended: October 3.
