Czech Philharmonic ⬩ Franz Welser-Möst

About 120 years separate Mozart’s Fifth Violin Concerto from Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony. In music history, this is the period stretching from Classicism to Late Romanticism, a time of great political and social change. The Austrian Empire where both composers were born and lived became Austria-Hungary, went through various wars and revolutions, and witnessed sweeping scientific discoveries and the industrial revolution. Above all, the works contrast in mood: the feelings that reign supreme in Mozart’s concerto are joy, youthfulness, lightness, and carefree playfulness, while in Bruckner’s symphony, written at the very end of his life, the themes are existential.