Conductor Christian Thielemann lives up to his name yet again as a “Bruckner specialist” (Klassik Akzente). Together with the Sächsische Staatskapelle of Dresden, of which he is GMD, he conducts Bruckner’s 9th symphony at the Whitsun Music Festival at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden.
Bruckner’s Ninth – presented in the unfinished version in three movements – calls for no fewer than four “Wagner tubas” at the beginning and end of the Adagio, an instrument which Richard Wagner had specially made for his Ring of the Nibelung. As an avowed fan of Wagner, Bruckner included them in several of his works. Thielemann now lets them sound at full volume. The press verdict: “a musical and spiritual event”.