It was nothing short of a sensation: in the autumn of 2021, the Female Symphonic Orchestra Austria (FSOA), under the direction of it's founder and chief conductor Silvia Spinnato and featuring Jacquelyn Wagner - one of the most sought-after and successful sopranos in the lyric and youthful-dramatic repertoire - gave the posthumous world premiere of the Hymnische Symphonie (Hymnic Symphony) by Bruckner's student Mathilde Kralik von Meyrswalden at the International Brucknerfest in Linz. This performance came more than 80 years after the final version was completed. "A sensational symphonic rediscovery," proclaimed the Ober�sterreichische Nachrichten, and the concert audience cheered. Now, the live recording of this concert is being released, paired with the Piano Trio in F major, also composed by Mathilde Kralik. Her early chamber music, after all, was well received by Eduard Hanslick, the universally feared music critic, and her songs, which form the main part of her oeuvre, were popularly sung. In contrast, the few symphonic works from her pen almost without exception ended up in a drawer and, after her death in Vienna in 1944, fell into near-total obscurity until today.
