Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major (arr. for organ by Gerd Schaller)
Gerd Schaller (organ)
rec. 2025, Cavaillé-Coll organ in Saint-Ouen, Rouen, France
Profil PH25051 [76]

Gerd Schaller first recorded his arrangement for organ of Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony for Profil as recently as late 2022 (review), so his decision to release a second recording on a different organ a mere three years later might raise a few eyebrows. His justification resides in the difference in sonority between the Eisenbarth organ of the Cistercian Abbey in Ebrach and that of the famous organ in Saint-Ouen, Rouen, built by Cavaillé-Coll, whose instruments so impressed the composer. This was the organ he played for his recording of his own arrangement of the Eighth Symphony (review), and he was so impressed by its majesty and richness of tone that he felt compelled to re-record the Fifth as the symphony most associated with, and best suited to, the organ. In his words, in the notes, “It opens up a new and unaccustomed access to the work.” It also prompted him to revise his arrangement; again, I quote his notes: “The alterations are not substantial, but they are clearly perceptible, in that I have occasionally opted for a more robust style of playing or for clearer configuration.”

In my previous review of that first recording of the organ Fifth, I expressed a preference for Schaller’s more propulsive tempi over another – albeit excellent – performance of a different arrangement of the same symphony by Matthew Giesen in St Florian on the Gramola label. Gerd Schaller is now very marginally more expansive in every movement of this new recording, although only marginally by a minute or less, perhaps reflecting the larger scale sound of the late-Romantic French organ as opposed to the Baroque organ of Ebrach.

I have neither the knowledge nor the expertise to specify the precise differences between the two recordings but playing them side by side, certain differences in sonorities are immediately evident: the Rouen organ has a richer, darker more mellow timbre than the more pungent, harmonically more distinct baroque sound in Ebrach and Schaller takes somewhat longer over the mighty opening statement. That difference is again noticeable in the Adagio, where the Ebrach organ has a brighter, “bubblier” sound compared with the nobler, more hieratic impression generated by the Cavaillé-Coll instrument. Unsurprisingly, the Scherzo comes across as nimbler and incisive in Ebrach and grander and more imposing in Rouen. The German performance affords more rhythmic precision, energy and even violence than the French, but the massive peroration of the fugal chorale which concludes the finale comes across even more imposingly in the latter: great, oceanic waves of sound assault the listener’s ears.

Organ aficionados – and indeed performers – will be more astute than I in identifying and appreciating the nuances of the differences between the two recordings. Both amply demonstrate how well this transcription of Bruckner’s symphony has both been accomplished and executed; it may be treated almost as a back-formation illustrating how profoundly this music as a composition is rooted in Bruckner’s experience and virtuosity as an organist himself.

Ralph Moore

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