NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Herbert Blomstedt

With his unbroken capacity for enthusiasm and quite incredible vitality, the former principal conductor of the orchestra has long since secured a firm place in the hearts of North Germany’s music lovers. At his last appearance in Hamburg in January 2016, he made the entire audience laugh with a charming and witty introduction to the concert, following it with outstanding readings of Scandinavian orchestral pieces.

Now the maestro makes his debut at the Elbphilharmonie with one of his favourite works: Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony. When he completed the symphony in 1875, the composer himself called it »a masterpiece of counterpoint«; the score takes many polyphonic compositional techniques to extremes, combining for instance an overwhelming double fugue with a solemn chorale in the finale. For Wilhelm Furtwängler, one of the great conductors of the 20th century, this fourth movement was nothing short of »the most monumental finale in history«.