It was his «cheekiest» («keckste») symphony, Anton Bruckner once remarked, and with that play on words he summed up the essence of this Sixth («sechste») precisely: in this most succinct, dashing, and dazzling of his mature symphonies, he plays masterfully with light and dark, clouding the radiant A major with elements of the Phrygian church scale. This results in gripping confrontations, moving laments and downright haunting moments, before all contrasts are heightened once more in the finale, but, ultimately, resolved. Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 90 also boldly  contrasts major and minor, above all at one very special moment that we will not divulge here: a concert as exnihilating as it is sublime.