The Glasshouse

At last, our Big Brukner Weekend is almost here (1 – 3 March). Are you coming? It’s caused quite a stir with the national press, like The Guardian and The Times, appearing in many top picks for 2024.

Conductor Laureate Thomas Zehetmair is making his way back to The Glasshouse to join the roster of special guests. Here, we give you a good dose of nostalgia and hear about the man of the moment himself, Anton Bruckner.

“I was thrilled when I heard about the Big Bruckner Weekend. One of my many great memories with Royal Northern Sinfonia was performing Bruckner’s Symphony No.4. The amazing acoustics of The Glasshouse were a perfect mix of a church-like sound and a clarity that helped to bring out Bruckner’s sometimes very filigrane textures.

Bruckner’s ‘Great’ Mass is an extremely touching work, and we want to transfer this quality to the audience. From its first performance, the music spoke straight away to the listeners, even though – as in many of his works – the musicians thought it was unplayable at first. Bruckner conducted it himself many times – if time travel becomes possible, I’ll take a trip to hear one of his performances.

I’d love to hear everything over the weekend if I could. It’ll be a pleasure to see Mark Elder leading The Hallé in Bruckner’s eighth symphony – I’ve worked with him on many occasions. Also, Bruckner’s String Quintet combines Austrian dialect and huge symphonic sounds. It’s one of my favourite pieces of the chamber music repertoire.

It’s always special to catch up with Royal Northern Sinfonia. When we played and recorded my final concert as music director, the atmosphere was very emotional. The programme summarised our work and combined Beethoven’s fifth symphony with John Casken’s commission, That Subtle Knot – ECM Records recently released it.

The acoustics and the whole concept of The Glasshouse have succeeded in presenting and stimulating the rich culture of the North East. It was a revelation for us all when Royal Northern Sinfonia and I inaugurated the hall with Haydn’s Creation. Musicians love to perform there, and I am no exception.”