The Cleveland Orchestra to Celebrate 200th Anniversary of Anton Bruckner's Birth with Symphony No. 4

The Cleveland Orchestra will release a new audio recording of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst on August 16 as it prepares to perform the work on tour in Europe later this summer. 

The recording will be available worldwide for digital streaming and download in spatial audio on all major platforms. A sample track (III. Scherzo: Bewegt) will be released on July 26. 

The release of Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 is just one way The Cleveland Orchestra is commemorating the composer’s bicentennial. On August 20, the Orchestra premieres Bruckner’s Fourth on its digital streaming platform, Adella, in a new video production featuring an interview with Welser-Möst discussing the work and the composer. 

Welser-Möst then leads the Orchestra in this same symphony on September 4, which marks the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, in the composer’s hometown of Ansfelden, Austria. This special performance outside the parish church opens the International Bruckner Festival Linz 2024 in collaboration with Brucknerhaus Linz. The Orchestra performs the work again on September 6 at the Musikverein in Vienna. 

“The Cleveland Orchestra and I are really looking forward to celebrating Anton Bruckner’s anniversary with his Fourth Symphony on September 4 with music enthusiasts in Ansfelden,” Welser-Möst said. “Bruckner’s music was deeply rooted in the traditions of his homeland, but in many ways, his compositions were far ahead of his time. This may be one of the reasons why his music has not lost its appeal. It inspires audiences through a profound listening experience.” 

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 was recorded live on March 14, 16, and 17, 2024 in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center, home of The Cleveland Orchestra. It opens quietly with a simple horn call, before bursting into a towering blaze of sound from the full ensemble. 

This is The Cleveland Orchestra’s third recording of 2024, following the release of Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 3 (arranged for double string orchestra by Cleveland Orchestra Assistant Principal Viola Stanley Konopka) and his Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, and Sergei Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 6. Visit The Cleveland Orchestra’s recordings website for more information on all recent recordings.