Bruckner Festival Opening

A Classical Sound Cloud: Great Music Under the Stars

Star conductor Riccardo Chailly wowed the audience with the Filarmonica della Scala; but the star of the evening was the 24-year-old pianist Alexander Malofeev(Bild: reinhard winkler)

The Brucknerfest kicked off at the Brucknerhaus in Linz with the traditional concert on Bruckner’s birthday, September 4. Star conductor Riccardo Chailly and his Filarmonica della Scala had traveled to the event—the hall was packed, but the concert was also broadcast live outdoors. Many enjoyed the classical music event while sitting on picnic blankets.

Riccardo Chailly, the great conductor of Milan’s La Scala, and his “Filarmonica” brought the house down at the Brucknerhaus. As soon as the musicians from Milan took the stage, it was clear: world-class talent was on display. Fine suits, white bow ties, focused elegance—truly Italian. Inside: a full house.

Outside in the Donaupark: a few connoisseurs on lounge chairs and picnic blankets, who had set up their very own personal sound experience.

Riccardo Chailly and Alexander Malofeev: Alexander Malofeev—blond mane, baggy black outfit. But as soon as he sat down at the piano, there was no trace of casualness left; he thrilled the audience with a virtuoso performance.(Bild: reinhard winkler)

The prologue to the Bruckner Festival—which is particularly diverse this year—featured two “Fours”: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Piano Concerto.

The program opened with Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Fourth Piano Concerto, “The Rock.” A work full of fundamental contrasts: idyllic, almost ethereal moments are overwhelmed by massive waves of sound. Chailly shaped this into a fascinating interplay of colors, tensions, and extreme dynamic contrasts. 

Then Alexander Malofeev took the stage. Just 24 years old, with a mane of blond hair and a baggy black outfit—outwardly the laid-back antithesis to the dapper orchestra. But as soon as he sat down at the piano, there was no trace of casualness left.

The 24-year-old pianist played like a god
What this young Russian, who lives in Berlin, then unleashed in the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto was an incredible performance. Malofeev doesn’t just play with his hands—his entire body seems to be part of the music. He leans into the keys, occasionally conducting with his left hand, physically taking possession of the music. And yet everything remains under stupendous technical control. Passages where other pianists reach the limits of what is possible seem almost like child’s play to him. He leans into the keys like Glenn Gould once did, but he doesn’t sing along. You are drawn into his interpretation.

The Donaupark also celebrated this classical music event(Bild: reinhard winkler)

Classical music is once again highly valued
An encore was inevitable. Malofeev treated the enthusiastic audience to Alexander Scriabin’s Waltz, Op. 38—a pianistic firework display, at once fragile and intoxicating. After the intermission came Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony—a work composed during his unhappy marriage to Antonina Mylyukova. As is well known, the relationship ended in disaster. This biographical tragedy shines through time and again in the music, which as a whole is a brilliant interplay of lament, tempest, and playfulness.

The famous pizzicato movement, in particular, was a real treat. The strings plucked their way through the music with a truly vigorous physicality, transporting the audience to a realm somewhere between fairy tale, illumination, and musical magic.

Finally, in the furious fourth movement, the Filarmonica della Scala once again demonstrated its true class. The strings shone with breathtaking precision, the soundscapes swelled, and Chailly masterfully maintained a balance between ecstasy and control.

The audience wasn’t ready to go home just yet. As an encore, they were treated to Rachmaninoff once more—the crowning finale of an evening in which the Klassische Klangwolke truly lived up to its name.

The International Bruckner Festival Linz will then officially open one week from Sunday (September 13). Before that, today, Sunday afternoon (September 6), a special “Kinder-Klangwolke” will take place, and on Saturday (September 12), the visualized “Linzer Klangwolke,” designed by Felix Breisach and titled “ATTheEndLinz,” will be held in Donaupark.