Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
From the Archives: Volume 1
rec. 1944-1974, AAD
German text & English translation included (Psalm 112)
SOMM Ariadne 5025-2 [2 CDs: 147]
In 2024, as we mark the bicentenary of the birth of Anton Bruckner, I imagine there will be a number of new and reissued commercial recordings of his music. However, SOMM Recordings have nailed their colours firmly to the historic mast. They plan to issue six double-CD sets of archive material, much of it either new to disc or previously unreleased commercially. The series will encompass all eleven of Bruckner’s symphonies as well as other works. The series is being produced in association with the Bruckner Society of America and its Secretary, John F Berky. Apparently, Mr Berky possesses an archive that comprises more than 11,000 recordings of Bruckner performances and this vast collection is, I believe, the source from which all the contents of this pair of discs has been drawn.
The booklet is graced by an authoritative and detailed essay by Benjamin Korstvedt who, amongst other things, is President of the Bruckner Society of America. I learned a great deal from reading this and I will be drawing on Prof. Korstvedt’s essay for much of the background information in this review.
Korstvedt reminds us that in 1855, though he was already in his early thirties and an established musician, Bruckner had the humility (my choice of word) to seek formal training to improve his compositional technique. He began to study harmony and counterpoint with Simon Sechter (1788-1867); this tuition lasted until 1861. Then, more remarkably, Bruckner became a pupil of a man younger than he was: Otto Kitzler (1834-1915), with whom he studied orchestration and musical form until 1863. Most of the music in this SOMM set was composed during the time that Bruckner was Kitzler’s pupil.
The earliest composition is the String Quartet in C minor. It’s a four-movement work which here plays for 20:34. The Quartet was neither performed nor published in Bruckner’s lifetime; indeed, what we hear on this CD is the very first performance of the work. It was given as recently as 1951 by the Koeckert Quartet, an ensemble founded by Rudolf Koeckert, who was concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. A little bit of web research established that Koeckert (1913-2005) led the BRSO from its inception in 1949 for thirty years. At the time that Koeckert and his colleagues premiered Bruckner’s Quartet the work was unpublished – Benjamin Korstvedt says that it was only published, in an edition by Leopold Nowak in 1955. The performance given here uses an edition made by Koeckert himself from Bruckner’s own manuscript.
I liked this C minor Quartet. It owes a debt to Haydn, I think, but it’s nonetheless accomplished and worthwhile to hear. The opening Allegro moderato is quite serious in tone and the music is convincing. The slow movement is fluent and there’s a central section based on dotted rhythms which provides good contrast. The scherzo is particularly Haydnesque, while the surprisingly short Rondo finale is succinct and enjoyable. The performance is a very good one. The sound is very acceptable, given that it dates from 1951; maybe the first violin is a bit too prominent but not excessively so. Both work and performance fully justify their inclusion in this set. The recording has not previously been issued commercially.
Bruckner completed the Quartet in August 1862. Not long after that, in October 1862, he completed the March in D minor; the Three Pieces for Orchestra were completed in the following month. Frankly, none of these compositions need detain us long. It’s interesting to hear some of Bruckner’s earliest efforts for orchestra but, as Benjamin Korstvedt comments, all four pieces “feel distinctly like exercises, with little hint of Bruckner’s own musical voice…” The performances in question are now credited to a 1944 German radio broadcast and were issued on a 1960 LP by an obscure label. Despite Lani Spahr’s best efforts the bass is very muddy and the recordings are treble-dominated. It is interesting to note, however, what a major step forward from this music the F minor symphony would be just a few months later
Before that, though, Bruckner composed the Overture in G minor, a score which gets occasional outings in the concert hall and recording studio even today. And that’s understandable because it’s far from a negligible piece. We hear it in this set in a 1959 broadcast performance by the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Köln under the American conductor, Dean Dixon (1915-76). Dixon leads a very good account of the overture. The slow introduction has a searching quality and the main Allegro is spirited. This is an off-air recording and the sound is really rather good, especially bearing in mind the provenance and date.
The F minor ‘Study’ symphony, which was completed in May 1863, comes in the most recent recording in this set. According to the notes, the present performance was given in 1974 “at the time of the first performances of Nowak’s critical edition of the score in 1974, the 150th anniversary year of Bruckner’s birth”. From this wording it’s not entirely clear if this performance was the actual premiere of Nowak’s edition; it matters not. The symphony is in the hands of Bruckner Orchestra, Linz under their then-music director, Kurt Wöss (1914-87). They make a very good job of the work. The first movement is vigorous and seems to be well structured. I particularly noted some attractive writing for the woodwind. I agree with Prof. Korstvedt’s assessment that the slow movement is “still quite far” from the profundity that Bruckner would eventually achieve in his mature slow movements. Nonetheless, it’s well written and Wöss obtains a sensitive performance of it. The Scherzo is crisp with some occasional irregular rhythms to spice things up a bit. By comparison with one or two of the composer’s rather lengthy mature scherzo movements, the succinct nature of this scherzo is welcome. The finale isn’t as interesting as the first two movements but, once again, Wöss and his orchestra make a good job of it.
Hot on the heels of the F minor symphony came the setting for eight-part SATB chorus and orchestra of Psalm 112, which Bruckner had completed by July 1863. We hear this in a recording previously issued on a 1950 Westminster LP. I learned from the booklet that this recording, conducted by Henry Swoboda (1897-1990), was the first to be made of this work. I don’t recall hearing the piece before; possibly it’s neglected because, to be honest, the music isn’t as distinguished as much of Bruckner’s mature choral output. In particular, Benjamin Korstvedt draws our attention to the fact that Bruckner “did not bring the score to completion, but ended it wit a desultory indication to conclude with a repetition of the entire opening portion, some 70 bars…” As he points out, by that stage this material has already been heard twice before in the piece; consequently, we get a tri-fold hearing of the music in a work which, overall, lasts for just under 14 minutes. That rather diminishes the value of the score. As for the performance and recording, the engineers have placed the chorus very prominently and as a result the orchestral contribution is often heard only dimly. To be fair to the engineers, it rather sounds to me as if the composer intended the piece to be for choir with orchestral accompaniment. Benjamin Korstvedt tells us that this is one of a number of recordings which the Westminster label made in Vienna at a time when local musicians and singers were “eager to seize such opportunities”. The chorus is the Vienna Akademie Kammerchor, an ensemble which had been founded in 1947. They do a good job for Svoboda and Bruckner. There’s value in hearing the piece, even if it doesn’t match some of Bruckner’s later achievements in the choral genre.
And so, we come to the First symphony. This is heard in a live radio performance given on New Year’s Day, 1959 by Eugen Jochum and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Jochum was chief conductor of this orchestra from its foundation in 1949 until 1961; so, by the time of this performance the partnership was firmly established. The recording pre-dates the version (with the Berlin Philharmonic) that Jochum set down for DG in October 1965 as part of his first recorded cycle of the nine numbered symphonies. I suppose I ought to come clean; for many years I thought this symphony – and, indeed, its successor – was not particularly interesting in comparison with Bruckner’s later symphonies. I revised my view somewhat when I heard a fine recording conducted by Herbert Blomstedt (review) and this Jochum performance similarly made me think again. There are two reasons for my re-evaluation: one is the quality of the present performance (and Blomstedt’s) and the other is hearing the First symphony here in the context of earlier works, including especially the F minor symphony.
The C minor symphony was composed between 1865 and 1866; in other words, it postdates Bruckner’s studies with Otto Kitzler. I don’t think it’s fanciful to detect a new-found confidence on Bruckner’s part; indeed, this seems to be in evidence right from the (very positive) outset of the first movement. This first movement – and, indeed, the symphony as a whole – seems to me to represent a significant advance on the F minor symphony and SOMM’s presentation of both works in this set enables one to draw the comparisons more readily. In the first movement a good number of Brucknerian stylistic fingerprints are in evidence. The BRSO gives an excellent performance and Jochum puts the music across most convincingly. I think we can class the Adagio as the first proper example of a Bruckner symphonic Adagio; the movement is characterised by expansive melodic lines and chromatic harmonies. Jochum paces this movement spaciously and with flexibility; this is a reading of no little distinction. The Scherzo too has claims, I think, to be the first ‘genuine article’ when we consider the composer’s symphonic scherzi. Jochum ensures that the scherzo material has ample energy – and fire at times – while the trio is played with delicacy. He also does the finale very well; he’s successful in the lyrical passages and also in the blazing tutti episodes. I enjoyed this performance. Bruckner had quite a way to go yet in his development as a composer of symphonies but experiencing it here in the context of several of his earlier works gave me a new appreciation of the C minor symphony; it’s an impressive score and it receives an impressive performance from Jochum and the BRSO. It’s good that such an effective account of the work is here presented in sound that is more than acceptable, especially when one remembers that we are listening to an off-air recording of a Bavarian Radio transmission that is some 65 years old.
Lani Spahr has done a fine job in restoring and remastering these recordings from a variety of sources and vintages. There probably wasn’t too much he could do to improve the rather murky sound on those venerable 1944 radio recordings. However, those performances offer the least interesting music in the set so I for one am not too bothered about that. The remaining recordings are of much more significant music and Spahr has restored all of these so that we can fully appreciate the quality of the performances as well as the music. For me, the audio restoration of the String Quartet, which enables us to hear this important historic recording for the first time, is of special significance. The two symphonies also – and the fine performances which each receives – are both valuable additions to the Bruckner discography. Indeed, it’s worth emphasising that all of these performances are new to CD and that the recordings of both symphonies, of the Quartet and of the Overture have never been released before. As such, this set will be of pressing interest to Bruckner devotees.
This is an auspicious launch of what promises to be a Bruckner series of uncommon interest.
John Quinn
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Contents
CD1
Symphony in F Minor, WAB 99 (1863)*
Bruckner Orchestra, Linz / Kurt Wöss
rec. live 11 June 1974
March in D Minor, WAB 96 (1862)**
Three Pieces for Orchestra, WAB 97 (1862)**
Vienna Symphony Orchestra / Hans Weisbach
rec. 9 May 1944
Psalm 112, WAB 35 (1863)
Vienna Akademie Kammerchor
Vienna Symphony Orchestra / Henry Swoboda
rec. 1950
CD2
Overture in G Minor, WAB 98 (Revised 1863)*
WDR Symphony Orchestra, Köln / Dean Dixon
rec. 1959
Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, WAB 101 (1866) (Linz version, ed. Nowak)*
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Eugen Jochum
rec. live 1 January 1959
String Quartet in C minor, WAB 111 (1862)*
Koeckert Quartet
rec. live 9 March 1951
*First release
** First CD release
