Then music journalists approach Marie Koenig and actor and author Michael Dangl this almost incomprehensible musician, artist, composer, one of the greatest of his time.
In, as filmmakers Macho emphasized, not in dialogues given by a script, but in a conversation between two Bruckner experts who, during the five days of filming, followed the journey of the life of Anton Bruckner followed suit. And talked and exchanged ideas about Bruckner at each location.
This expressive music always fits in with this, excerpts from the symphonies and other works by Bruckner. Works that he himself could never accept as finished, as Bruckner’s many revisions prove.
Contradictory Bruckner
Dangl sums it up: “Perhaps Bruckner’s contradiction is what makes his life coherent, perhaps that is precisely what defines our humanity.”
And music journalist König adds: “By being so sketchy, Bruckner leaves room in his life to get closer to him.” And that is exactly what the film does. An approach to this “enigmatic genius” whose riddle simply has no solution.
Bruckner, celebrated organ star in Paris and London, where he improvised on the organ in front of tens of thousands of people, but had to struggle for recognition in Vienna for a long time.
Bruckner, who comes to an organ prelude as a “bower” and then comes proudly, with his head held high and his eyes shining, to those who are supposed to judge him and says: “Actually, you should judge us.”
The film also explores the question that Governor Thomas Stelzer Before the presentation, he asked: “What does it actually mean for the person who receives such a gift of creativity?”
Mysteries remain unsolved
There is no definitive answer. But contemporary witnesses of Bruckner, represented by Erwin Steinhauer or Martina Ebmprovide authentic insights into Bruckner’s emotional world, living conditions and behavior.
“Bruckner sublimated this tremendous energy in his symphonies,” recalls a doctor who Bruckner sought out in Vienna. He then also assured that Bruckner, who was constantly in love with young girls throughout his life, “died a virgin.”
Bruckner’s loneliness
Bruckner’s loneliness, which even led him to the psychiatric sanatorium in Bad Kreuzen, is also the subject of the film. And Bruckner’s search for the perfect symphony, which brought him back to St. Florian again and again. There, where he had to live according to strict rules as a child, Bruckner may have experienced “the kind of regulation” that a genius needs in order not to lose his way.
For Markus Poschnerwho as head of the Bruckner Orchestra has his say, as does the Upper Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möstit is Bruckner’s “Way of the Cross” not to give up and to continue working as a composer instead of being celebrated as an organist.
Exemplary resilience
A recommendation for the film also comes from Norbert TrawoegerDirector of the Bruckner Expo of the State of Upper Austria: “We are all contradictory and complex. The film does not conclude, but opens up. You have to engage with Bruckner and sit down with him.”
Anton Bruckner is an example of resilience in action: “He always carried on in his crises. Let us be inspired by him, because his music leads us into the distance. And to ourselves.”
The film, which Trawöger describes as “a kind of symphony”, will be shown on 6. Septemberat 10.30 pm on ORF 2 broadcast.
