MusicaNova Orchestra To Perform World Premiere Of Lost Bruckner Symphony Composed In 1878

MusicaNova Orchestra, led by Music Director Warren Cohen, announces it will perform the historic world premiere of a "lost version" of Bruckner's 4th Symphony, written in 1878.

Discovered in the archives of the Austrian National Library in Vienna, the score was compiled and edited by the renowned Bruckner scholar, Benjamin Korstvedt, who offered MusicaNova Orchestra the distinct honor of the World Premiere. MusicaNova Orchestra will perform Bruckner's "Lost" 4th Symphony on May 1 at 2 pm at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona.

Tickets are $19.50-$34.99 and go on sale March 11 at 10 am at scottsdaleperformingarts.org. Early birds receive 10% off tickets when purchasing before March 31.

Known for performing hidden gems of classical music, MusicaNova Orchestra embarked on a fundraising campaign earlier this year to secure the capital necessary for rehearsals and the performance. Bruckner fans from across the globe, Arizona classical music lovers and MusicaNova board and donors rallied to ensure this lost work could be heard.

The 19-year old orchestra, comprised of leading musicians from around Arizona and conducted by Maestro Warren Cohen, was successful in its efforts and will bring its high level of musicality for this historic performance.

Bruckner has been dead 125 years, but not all of his music has been performed. An insatiable tinkerer, Bruckner wrote his Fourth Symphony in 1874, only to have the Vienna Philharmonic reject it as unplayable. He revised it in 1878, then called off the concert before the work was to be premiered. More revisions lead to the 1881 version, which is most commonly played today.

The 1878 version was lost to the musical trash heap - until Dr. Korstvedt dug into the archives to compile an authoritative edition. The "lost" version includes a lengthy passage that has never been heard before, as well as a mix of ideas from his earliest and later versions. This edition is a fascinating piece, illustrating the genius of the composer and the evolution of his masterpiece.

Korstvedt, familiar with MusicaNova Orchestra and its work, granted the Phoenix-based group the compiled score, so it could be heard for the first time by live audiences.

Josef Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 - 11 October 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. Bruckner's compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, and roving harmonies.

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