Brucknerhaus Linz

Festival 4020 invents modern music

South Korean virtuoso See-eun Lee plays at the night concert.(Bild: DoHoon Kim)

Other great composers are celebrating their birthdays in the Bruckner year. And the 4020 Festival, which is being programmed by the Brucknerhaus for the second time, is now focusing on them. A total of nine concerts are on the program from 1 to 5 May, including three concert nights (with free admission) in the footsteps of Luigi Nono.

Festival 4020 is a special feature in the Linz Brucknerhaus concert calendar, as it brings small ensembles and special soloists to the fore with great works, some of which have never been heard before. 

This year, from May 1 to 5, works by Leoš Janáček (170th birthday), Arnold Schönberg and Charles Ives (both 150th birthdays) or Luigi Nono and Klaus Huber (both 100th birthdays) will be presented. The motto of the festival is "The invention of modernism". There will be an organ concert, evening and night concerts with small, selected ensembles and a matinee.

Ives and Schönberg with the Engegard Quartet(Bild: _Lars Bryngelsson_)

World premieres are planned
Five of the nine concerts will feature the most important composer of 2024 - alongside Anton Bruckner: Arnold Schönberg. Ten works by Ives and Nono, also important forefathers of modernism, have never been heard at the Brucknerhaus before. But it's not just the jubilarians, contemporary composers also have a platform at Festival 4020, as six world premieres will be presented, one of which is by Michael Hazod from Linz.

Jakob Lehmann is much in demand as an energetic and inspiring conductor (Bild: Nick Gilbert)

Moonlight and music
The charismatic violinist Elena Denisova and pianist Alexei Kornienko will play Hazod's "And now, where the moonlight is" on Sunday, May 5, at 11 am. The festival has a special price, as the Festival Pass costs 45 euros, the Young Ticket 25 euros; the night concerts (three dates), which are dedicated to Luigi Nono, are free of charge.