Berliner Philharmoniker -Sir Simon Rattle

Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony has long been one of the composer’s underrated works. According to Sir Simon Rattle, this is because it doesn’t offer what people usually expect of a Bruckner symphony. It is shorter, more transparent and less solemn than usual, “a piece full of humour and daring”. Bruckner himself seems to have seen it that way, for he whimsically declared the Sixth to be his “boldest”. To open the programme, Simon Rattle conducts the world premiere of a horn concerto written by Jörg Widmann, this season’s Composer-in-Residence, for our principal horn-player Stefan Dohr.