Page 222 - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Coverage Book 2023-24

04 March 2024

FIRST NIGHT | CLASSICAL
Big Bruckner Weekend review — an

astonishing tribute to a symphonic

master

Glasshouse, Gateshead
Simon Thompson
Monday March 04 2024, 12.00pm, The Times

Alpesh Chauhan conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra through Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony
THOMAS JACKSON

The scale of the ambition was the most impressive thing. Not just the ambition of the composer

at hand, Anton Bruckner — who composed symphonic soundscapes so vast that they’re known

as “cathedrals in sound” by his admirers and “symphonic boa constrictors” by his enemies —

but also the ambition of the team at the Glasshouse, the concert hall known until recently as

Sage Gateshead, who had the guts to organise a festival of Bruckner’s music that would
showcase his final three symphonies over one weekend with a host of guest performers.