Christoph Eschenbach conducts Bruckner and Saint-Saëns — With Christian Schmitt

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The Bamberg Symphony and their honorary conductor, the celebrated Christoph Eschenbach, draw on the most divine aspects of church music in a symphonic double feature: Bruckner's First Symphony and Saint-Saëns's Organ Symphony, featuring Bamberg's principal organist Christian Schmitt!

The devout Anton Bruckner, educated in a monastery, did not publish his first symphony until after the age of 40—and though it already bears some of the architectural framework and textural richness of the works yet to come, the Symphony No. 1, more sprightly than the later symphonies, was given the nickname das kecke Beserl (the saucy maid) by the composer. Camille Saint-Saëns, like Bruckner an accomplished organist—saw his Symphony No. 3, grandiose and immersive, as the pinnacle of his art: "I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again." 

Photo © Jonas Holthaus