Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Mass No 2 in E minor for choir & winds, WAB 27
Ave Maria, motet, WAB 6
Locus iste, motet, WAB 23
Virga Jesse, motet, WAB 52
Os justi, motet, WAB 30
Christus factus est, motet, WAB 11
Aequale No. 1 for 3 trombones in C minor, WAB 114
Aequale No. 2 for 3 trombones in C minor, WAB 149
Bruckner’s Welt (spoken documentary)
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Münchner Rundfunkorchester/Peter Dijkstra
rec. 2023, Studio 1, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich, Germany
No sung texts provided
BR Klassik 900940 [2 CDs: 134]
This year is the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth. Not surprisingly, to mark this auspicious occasion there have been many new and reissued releases. One of the finest is this studio-recorded album with Peter Dijkstra directing his choral and orchestral forces in Munich.
On this double CD set, the Mass No. 2, Motets and Aequali are all contained on the first CD. The second CD is titled ‘Bruckner’s Welt’, a documentary written and directed by Markus Vanhoefer and including an introduction to the Mass No. 2 in E minor. Please note the spoken commentary is in German only interspersed with examples of his music, so it is difficult to see how CD 2 would be of interest to non-German speakers.
Interest in Bruckner’s symphonies has never been higher. He left various versions of them that conductors are now increasingly programming with their orchestras, a trend that is stimulating the interest of the composer’s admirers and collectors. In recent years, for example, Bavarian conductor and Bruckner specialist Gerd Schaller embarked on a project to perform Bruckner’s symphonies in all versions and record them on the Hänssler Profil label.
Despite the popularity of his symphonies, outside Austro-Germany Bruckner’s sacred choral works are nowhere near as well known. He had a deep and abiding Catholic faith and it is through his sacred music in praise of God that we can gain more insight into the spiritual side of his character. The works range from the small-scale, notably Motets for choir a cappella, to the large, such as the Te deum scored for soloists, mixed choir, orchestra and organ ad libitum(1881, rev. 1884). Bruckner wrote several masses although the three numbered masses receive the lion’s share of the attention: Mass No. 1 in D minor (1864), Mass No. 2 in E minor (1866) and Mass No. 3 in F minor (1868).
My admiration for Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E minor was established some years ago at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele where I attended a performance at the Annenkirche. I clearly recall being captivated by the affecting performance of the Dresdner Kammerchor and the Bläsersolisten der Staatskapelle Dresden directed by Hans-Christoph Rademann.
The Mass No. 2 was commissioned by Bishop Rudigier of Linz for the consecration of the votive chapel of the new Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Delays in the building work meant that the work (first Linz version of 1866) wasn’t premiered until 1869 when it was performed out of doors. The score underwent numerous revisions, notably in 1882 (second Linz version of 1882), prior to its 1885 premiere as part of the Diocesan Jubilee celebrations at the Old Cathedral (Church of Ignatius) in Linz. Dijkstra here conducts the highly admired and most frequently heard second Linz version of 1882. The scoring for eight-part choir, and fifteen wind instruments (two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets and three trombones) is unusual. The combination of polyphonic writing in the style of late Renaissance Palestrina with a 19th century approach to the woodwind lends the mass a certain individuality.
The singing of the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks has an elevated sense of reverence and conviction and combines admirably with the playing of the Münchner Rundfunkorchester. There is a strong sense that all singers and players are inspired by Bruckner’s glorious settings of the liturgical texts. Among the many highlights, the reverential character of the prayer Dona nobis pacem of the Agnus Dei especially moves me.
During the period 1835-92, which is most of his compositional life, Bruckner wrote some forty motets. Many are miniature masterpieces of which the Locus iste is probably the most widely admired. Here Dijkstra has selected five motets all scored for unaccompanied mixed choir. Devotion and sincerity are the watchwords here. Bruckner will have chosen his sacred texts extremely carefully and the choir does justice to the import of the texts. Especially memorable is the sublime performance of the gradual motet Christus factus est, WAB 11.
In 1847 Bruckner wrote his two short aequali (No’s WAB 114 and 149) that formed part of the funeral service of a relative. A product of Bruckner’s youth, both are chorale-like instrumental works scored for three trombones. The exquisite playing by the three trombonists from the Münchner Rundfunkorchester creates a splendid impression in this rare repertoire.
The sound quality here is first class. Although I am familiar with the Latin text of the mass ordinary, I certainly don’t know it by heart, hence my disappointment that the booklet doesn’t contain any sung Latin texts and translations. There are however two essays: ‘Music from Heaven’ by Anna Vogt and ‘The most glorious day of his life’ by Harald Hodeige. With singing as radiant as this, it is a shame that additional Bruckner motets haven’t been included on this album.
Bruckner’s three numbered Masses have been recorded many times and there are a couple of competing accounts that I believe to be worthy of consideration. Between 1963 and 1973 Eugen Jochen conducted the Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in recordings of the 3 Masses in the Herkulessaal, Munich. I initially had them on LP vinyl but it I now available on a remastered double CD set on Deutsche Grammophon ‘The Originals’. Despite some comments concerning patchy sonics, they are now largely improved by that remastering, and I have long admired the intensity of Jochen’s readings.
Praiseworthy, too, is the compelling and dignified account of the E minor Mass from Berlin in 2019 with Gijs Leenaars conducting Berlin’s Rundfunkchor and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester on Pentatone; the valuable coupling is Stravinsky’s Mass (1948) (review). Concerning recordings of the Motets, I highly regard the accounts of fifteen Motets gloriously sung by the church choir of St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, London, directed by Robert Jones on a 1994 Naxos album, 8.550956.
Peter Dijkstra directs first class performances here that I consider to be a match for any rival recordings.
Michael Cookson
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