Opinions once varied on the music of Anton Bruckner (born on September 4, 1824 in Ansfelden, near Linz), who ranks amongst the great symphonists after Beethoven. While one faction regarded him as a destroyer of traditions, the other side ecstatically…

Following the world première of Bruckner’s 8th Symphony, Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick wrote: "It is not impossible to imagine that this dream-dazed caterwauling belongs to the future – a future we do not envy for it.” We can make out both…

Born in Moscow, Valery Gergiev initially studied conducting under Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. While still a student, he won the Herbert von Karajan conducting competition in Berlin. In 1978, aged 24, Valery Gergiev became assistant…