Participants in the world Synod of Bishops and the Pope were treated to a concert at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on Monday evening.
The Holy Father said the symphony "translates the faith of its author, who with his compositions was capable of transmitting a religious vision of life and history."
"We could say that Anton Bruckner, drawing from the Austrian Baroque and the Schubertian tradition of popular song, brought the romantic process of
exteriorization to its extreme consequences," the Pontiff said. "Listening to this famous composition in the basilica dedicated to St. Paul, we are
spontaneously drawn to a passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians in which the Apostle, having spoken of the diversity and unity of charisms, compares
the Church to the human body, made up of members very different one from the other but all indispensable to its correct functioning.
"In the same way, this orchestra and choir are formed of various instruments and voices which, in harmony together, produce a melody sweet to the ear and
to the spirit."
I don't have a cd of the Sixth Sym. but shall buy it!
