BENEDICT XVI PRAISES THE MUSIC OF ANTON BRUCKNER

VATICAN CITY, 22 OCT 2011 (VIS) -  This evening in the Vatican's  Paul VI Hall, the Bavarian State Opera gave a concert in honour of Benedict  XVI. The programme included the Ninth Symphony and the "Te Deum" by  Anton Bruckner, played by the Bavarian State Orchestra and the "Audi  Jugendchorakademie", conducted respectively by Kent Nagano and Martin  Steidler.

  At the end of the  performance the Pope rose to thank the musicians. Listening to Bruckner's  music, he said, "is like finding oneself in a great cathedral,  surrounded by its imposing structures which arouse emotion and lift us to the  heights. There is however an element that lies at the foundations of  Bruckner's music, both the symphonic and the sacred: the simple, solid,  genuine faith he conserved throughout his life".

  "The great conductor  Bruno Walter used to say that 'Mahler always sought after God, while Bruckner  had found Him'. The symphony we have just heard has a very specific title:  'Dem lieben Gott' (To the Beloved God), almost as if he wished to dedicate  and entrust the last and most mature fruit of his art to the One in Whom he  had always believed, the One Who had become his only true interlocutor in the  last stage of his life", the Holy Father said.

  "Bruckner asked this  beloved God to let him enter His mystery, ... to let him praise the Lord in  heaven as he had on earth with his music. 'Te Deum laudamus, Te Dominum  confitemur'; this great work we have just heard - written at one sitting then  reworked over fifteen years as if reconsidering how better to thank and  praise God - sums up the faith of this great musician", Pope Benedict  concluded. "It is also a reminder for us to open our horizons and think  of eternal life, not so as to escape the present, though burdened with  problems and difficulties, but to experience it more intensely, bringing a  little light, hope and love into the reality in which we live".

Vatican Information Service