Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

This concert presents two challenging Viennese works by composers who were once on the periphery of the repertory but are now frequently performed. Both pieces are ideal entries into their composers' unique symphonic worlds: Alban Berg's Violin Concerto, with its haunting lyricism, is an atonal work for those who normally dislike atonal music; Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, with its epic but accessible structures, was a hit even with Bruckner's many detractors when it premiered in Vienna in 1881. Berg's concerto, dedicated "to the memory of an angel," is a moving memorial to the daughter of Mahler's former wife, who died tragically at age 18. It also turned out to be a requiem for Berg himself, who died shortly before the 1936 premiere. Bruckner's symphony, subtitled "Romantic," is a tribute to an earlier age of Viennese Romanticism, though Bruckner may well have invested it with nostalgic descriptions to make it more palatable to an audience hostile to his daring mystical abstractions.