Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony is considered the absolute pinnacle of his oeuvre. Bruckner himself saw it as his “contrapuntal masterpiece”. The Viennese musicologist Robert Haas called Bruckner's Fifth Symphony a “monumental work of confession” and “a high gift to the music world”. It is an expression and example of human creative power. It delights with its beauty, and inspires to the idea of a higher purpose in life.

Born in 1901 in North Moravia, Franz Konwitschny – a trained violist – gave up the musical direction of the Hanover Opera House in 1949 to take over the direction of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in the Soviet Occupation Zone. Between 1953 and 1955 he also directed the Dresden Staatskapelle. In addition to that he also took over the direction of the East Berlin “Staatsoper Unter den Linden” in 1955 and held this dual position until his death in 1962. The busy Konwitschny was certainly the most important conducting personality of the early GDR – and with his omnipresence in the country’s music centres, in a sense the general music director of the young state.

These recordings, first released in 1962 on the GDR label “Eterna”, are still regarded as a reference by subsequent generations of young musicians and listeners. Thanks to a loving analogue remastering of the original tapes, these recordings now resound in new splendour and in a previously unheard-of sound quality.