Chorus sine nomine, founded in 1991 by Johannes Hiemetsberger, is one of the most distinguished and innovative concert choirs in Austria. On this CD, the choir presents motets by Anton Bruckner. Bruckner simply called them sacred choruses, as the reason for their composition can usually be traced back to a liturgical occasion. The six works on the CD correspond to such liturgical interludes: Graduale (Christus factus est, Locus iste, Os justi, Virga Jesse), Offertorium (Ave Maria) and a hymn for the Good Friday liturgy (Vexilla regis). As an organist, Bruckner was admired above all for his improvisations. He was particularly admired for his high contrapuntal skills, in which he demonstrated his craftsmanship in fugue and imitation. The style of the fugal parts of his improvisations was based on Baroque patterns (such as Handel), while in other, more imaginative parts the tonal language of his organ playing became increasingly typical of Bruckner. Martin Haselbock establishes this connection to Bruckner with his organ improvisations.

ANTON BRUCKNER (1824-1896) - Symphony No. 7 in E major Arrangement for ensemble by Hanns Eisler, Erwin Stein and Karl Rankl During the coronavirus pandemic, when large symphonic performances were almost impossible due to contact restrictions and social distancing rules, the ensemble wanted to enable people to experience the depth and spirituality of Bruckner's music despite the social distancing and isolation restrictions. While there are normally around 80 musicians on stage when Bruckner's 7th Symphony is performed, the Stuttgart-based Ensemble Balance performs the work with just 11 instrumentalists, the result being that this condensed chamber music remains a unique experience, even without the pandemic! And this is because it is precisely in this concentrated, emotionally condensed form that Bruckner's compositional artistry becomes seductively clear and audible! The in-depth exploration into his work during the rehearsals for this recording in August 2020 had the effect of welding the ensemble together in both an artistic and a personal way, and this intimate connection between each and every musician, combined with the spirit of Bruckner's composition, can be clearly felt and heard in this performance by Ensemble Balance.

Anton Bruckner 200 (1824-2024)

A wide-ranging selection of Anton Bruckner's sacred works for choir and brass ensemble is presented by the NDR Choir Hamburg under the direction of Hans-Christoph Rademann.The pieces extend almost chronologically over 50 years, allowing the compositional development of this deeply religious composer to be traced.

Despite all the warnings from the prophets of doom, Bruckner's music has thankfully prevailed. Bruckner was always in search of the ideal structure for his symphonies. Dissatisfaction and perfectionism both caused him anguish and served as motivation in his determination to advance on an artistic level. His goal was to compose absolute music in the spirit of Beethoven. It is his Third Symphony above all, "in which the trumpet introduces the theme", that encapsulates this striving for absolute music - music that is timeless and continues to touch people's hearts.

Bernard Haitink farewell concert to Amsterdam and the Netherlands, dated June 2019. One of his most beloved works, Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, in a first ever release. An outstanding account in a compelling sound, furtherly enhanced by the 180 grams double-vinyl LP format.

Anton Bruckner's Second Symphony is certainly one of the most interesting symphonies in the cycle, even for musical amateurs, due to a number of special features. Inside Bruckner 2024: The complete symphonies in all essential versions.

Bruckner requests a favourable reception for his Fourth Symphony, commending the work in these terms: "It is the most accessible and popular of my works and was a huge success when performed in Vienna. As a consequence of a recent letter from Munich, our Emperor has begun to take an interest in me."

In addition to his symphonies, Anton Bruckner is best known for his sacred works: his stirring masses and his deeply moving a cappella motets. On this new BR-KLASSIK CD, to mark the Bruckner Year 2024, the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Peter Dijkstra present his Mass No. 2 together with five well-known motets and the two short Aequali for three trombones from 1847. The new studio recordings were made in connection with the opening concert of the 2023/24 season on October 28, 2023. On a second CD, "Bruckner's World" by Markus Vanhoefer offers not only an introduction to the recorded works but also a detailed description of the life and work of this important Late Romantic composer.

After Bruckner's uncommissioned Mass (No. 1) in D minor had brought him to the attention of a wider public – following its premiere on November 20, 1864 in the Old Cathedral in Linz and a repeat performance in the city’s Redoutensaal – Bishop Franz Joseph Rudigier commissioned a second mass from the composer. Bruckner wrote the work between August and November 1866, and it was to be premiered at the consecration of the Votive Chapel of the New Cathedral; due to delays in the construction work, however, the performance could not take place until September 29, 1869. The premiere of the Mass (No. 2) in E minor for eight-part mixed choir and wind ensemble was also a great success, and Bruckner described it as “the most glorious day” of his life. The unusual instrumentation was due to the occasion and the open-air performance venue on the cathedral building site (the new chapel had proven too small for the choir). The work derives its particular tension from the sharp contrasts between archaic, psalm-like monophony and a strictly polyphonic movement structure modeled on Palestrina, combined with the "modern" wind accompaniment in sweeping, romantic harmony.

Bruckner thoroughly revised the Mass (No. 2) between 1876 and 1882, and the premiere of the second version in the Old Cathedral on October 4, 1885, as part of the Diocesan Jubilee in Linz, was once again an outstanding success. The composer "stood at the organ during the performance and gazed rapturously at the vault of the cathedral, his lips moving in silent prayer."

Bruckner's sacred motets are characterized by Catholic worship and the church spaces that were Bruckner's home from childhood. In 1837, at the age of 13, he was admitted as a choirboy to the Augustinian canons' monastery of Sankt Florian near Linz, where he worked as an organist from 1848 to 1855. His religious devotion and early influence meant that he initially saw himself as a church musician, before broadening his scope to include symphonic music - in whose sound architecture the organ also found an audible echo.

The two pianists, Julius Zeman and Shun Oi, have made an exquisite and historic contribution to the Bruckner Year 2024 – celebrating the 200th birthday of the great symphonist by recording Anton Bruckner's Seventh Symphony in a version for two pianos. Some music lovers may ask in surprise, "For two pianos, not for piano four hands?" However, anyone who, like me, has heard the version for two pianos in a performance – on two Bösendorfer concert grand pianos, performed by the two pianists on this recording – will not find the answer difficult. The volume of sound that a symphony by Anton Bruckner unfolds in its orchestral form has a magnificent, even overwhelming effect, and something of this sonic power must also be conveyed by the piano version if it is not to do without a constitutive feature of this music. I was convinced by the live impression of the performance on two pianos: it truly sounded like "Bruckner," and I could only place the deep and moving impression of this performance alongside the best orchestral performances.

— Dr. Thomas Leibnitz

REVIEW:

Bruckner’s symphonies don’t easily lend themselves to piano reductions. The problem largely lies within the composer’s long stretches of string tremolos. If one literally replicates these effects on the piano, they sound like the worst clichés of silent movie accompaniments and grow instantly tedious. However, in their world premier recording of Hermann Behn’s two-piano Seventh Symphony arrangement, Julius Zeman and Shin Oi successfully circumvent the problem by subjecting the tremolos to altered dynamics, speeds and articulations. This ensures more textural variety, and makes it easier for the pianists to focus on the contrapuntal foreground. Their tempo fluctuations in the first movement have an organic ebb and flow, allowing for assiduous transitions and for themes to take full shape.

Shifts in color and balance beautifully demarcate the Adagio’s harmonic twists and turns. It’s all too easy for even the best pianists to get bogged down while approaching the big C Major climax, yet Zeman and Oi avoid this by minimizing accented downbeats with their eyes and ears on the long lines. They bring more cogent horizontal interplay to the Scherzo than in many orchestral performances, abetted by a moderate basic tempo. And the pianists bring impressive timbral character to the Finale’s themes; note, for instance, the mellifluously voiced chorale against the warmth of the detaché bass lines in octaves. The sonics are a tad dry for music that calls out for a more resonant ambience, but that matters little in light of the pianists’ excellent ensemble values and intelligent music making. Naturally one shouldn’t be without a recording of the orchestral original, but if you want to hear Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony on two pianos, look no further.

— ClassicsToday.com (Jed Distler)

Bruckner’s Fifth is eminently suited to an arrangement for performance on the organ above all because of its musical texture. In no other Bruckner symphony, for example, does counterpoint play such an important part. I am thinking in particular of the great fugue in the final movement. It really does seem as if many passages of this magnificent work were composed as if with the organ in mind, even though the Fifth is not a piece for organ at all, being in the first place a symphonic work. And yet it lends itself admirably to the extraction of a compositional substrate with no loss of essential content. That cannot be said of all Bruckner’s symphonies. Of all his symphonies, in my opinion, the Fifth, Eighth and Ninth are most amenable to an arrangement for organ. Building on the compositional core, it is the orchestral treatment above all that plays a key role. If this is lacking, an arrangement of the work can deprive the work of its grandeur. That is again at risk if one attempts to copy the orchestra or to transpose certain orchestral effects one-to-one onto the organ. Such an approach is generally unsatisfactory, because organ writing is governed by different rules than those applying to orchestral scoring. It would be fatal to make the organ rival the orchestra. My aim from the start was to avoid imitating the orchestra and to create a work specifically for organ in the manner of an organ symphony.

Following his critically acclaimed interpretation of Bruckner's 7th Symphony, Iván Fischer leads his Budapest Festival Orchestration to the summit of 19th century symphonic music, with this new recording of the monumental, enigmatic, unfinished and deeply religious 9th Symphony of Anton Bruckner. The three completed movements are pervaded with angst and awareness of death. As in Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, the first movement is dominated by a dark D minor. The pounding rhythms of the scherzo seem to anticipate Stravinsky and Bartók, while the large leaps and piercing dissonances point towards the Second Viennese School of Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. The Adagio is Bruckner’s heartrending farewell to the world and to life. Although Bruckner died before he could write the huge fourth movement he had in mind, there is something satisfying and comforting in concluding with the Adagio.

Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which came to an abrupt end with Haitink’s death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and previously unreleased live recordings of concerts from past years. This recording of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony documents concerts given in November 1981 at the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz.

Haitink first conducted a Munich subscription concert in 1958, and from then on was a regular guest with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra – either at the Herkulessaal of the Residenz or at the Philharmonie im Gasteig. This congenial collaboration lasted more than six decades. The orchestra musicians and singers enjoyed working with him just as much as the BR sound engineers. As an interpreter of the symphonic repertoire, and especially that of the German-Austrian Late Romantic period, Haitink was held in high esteem throughout the world. With him, the symphonies of Anton Bruckner were always in the best of hands. His driving principle was to make the sound architecture of a musical composition, with its complex interweaving, transparently audible; extreme sensitivity of sound was combined with a clearly structured interpretation of the score.

REVIEW:

Haitink was a master at pacing large symphonic structures with impeccable, understated eloquence. Few pieces reward this skill like Bruckner’s Seventh, and here he shapes with just enough momentum to propel the vast opening movements onward without sacrificing the music’s sonic splendor. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra plays with a refinement that’s expected, and a transparency that surprises. The ensemble’s brasses are appropriately potent at the work’s many apexes, but they impress even more when the score calls for delicacy and restraint.

Bruckner front-loads so much in the first two movements that the other half of the symphony can feel like an afterthought. One additional virtue of this account is that Haitink makes the mazelike finale spring with energy, charm and a constant sense of wonder.

-- New York Times (David Weininger)

The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks were linked by a long and intensive artistic collaboration, brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and as yet unreleased live recordings of concerts from the past years.

This recording of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony documents concerts from January 2012 in Munich‘s Philharmonie im Gasteig. Haitink first conducted a Munich subscription concert in 1958, and from then on he repeatedly stood on the podium of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks – either in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz or in the Philharmonie im Gasteig. This congenial collaboration lasted more than six decades. The orchestral musicians and singers enjoyed working with him just as much as the BR sound engineers. As an interpreter of the symphonic repertoire, and especially that of the German-Austrian late Romantic period, Haitink was held in high esteem worldwide. It was on the borderline between High and Late Romanticism, where the style of the times was to change and finally dissolve, that Anton Bruckner once again conjured up the very essence of the Romantic attitude to life with his Fourth Symphony.

It was the composer himself who gave the work its popular title "Romantic"; the name appears in much of his correspondence. – This "Romantic" symphony conjures up an ideal world in bright, unbroken colours, and looks back on an intact and carefree past. The consistently relaxed and positive mood of the symphony seems all the more astonishing when one considers the complicated history of the work’s genesis. The first version of 1874, a year of professional setbacks, was rejected by Bruckner after several plans for a premiere came to nothing; with relentless self-criticism, he referred to it as “overladen” and "too restless". In 1878 he subjected it to radical revision, in the course of which, among other things, a completely new third movement was written - the Hunting Scherzo. The other three movements were also profoundly reworked, partly shortened and formally condensed, and up to 1880 Bruckner repeatedly altered the final movement, which gradually grew into a crowning finale within the symphonic structure that would dissolve and overcome every last contradiction.

It was in this version of 1878/1880, which also forms the basis of this recording, that the Fourth Symphony was premiered on February 20, 1881 in Vienna, played by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of the Wagner aficionado Hans Richter. The performance was a great triumph, and marked a decisive change in the reception of Bruckner's music. His symphonic work to date had largely met with rejection, but now, with the "Romantic", he had made his breakthrough. As one of Bruckner’s most-performed works alongside the Seventh, the Fourth has remained just as successful to this day. Indeed, the symphony’s unbroken popularity also underscores the timeless appeal of Bruckner’s work: that deeply human longing for the “Romantic”, which has left no-one unmoved to this day.

Anton Bruckner 200 (1824-2024)

Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra were linked by a long and intensive artistic collaboration, brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and as yet unreleased live recordings of concerts from the past years.

This recording of Bruckner's "Te Deum" and his Eighth Symphony (version by Robert Haas, 1939) documents concerts performed in the Philharmonie im Gasteig in November 2010, and in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz in December 1993.

Bruckner 5 for Organ "Bruckner is most enthusiastic about the instruments built by Cavaill�-Coll. This enthusiasm is something I share without reservation. The impressively monumental sound, the vast colour spectrum and diversity of the stops and, what is more, the simply unlimited qualities of sound that distinguish the Cavaill�-Coll organs - all this enthralled Anton Bruckner then, and it is these same characteristics that fascinate me now. When you play on such an instrument, you revive the sound world of the 19th century." Gerd Schaller

This is as fine a recorded account... as I've heard for some time, both in terms of Lahav Shani's conception of the music and it's realisation on the orchestra. It's a performance that grows movement by movement, stable of pulse, yet flexible and free-flowing within the boundaries of the larger whole." Gramophone was full of praise for the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra's recording, released in 2023, of Bruckner's epic Symphony No 7. Now the Dutch orchestra and it's chief conductor have recorded Bruckner's Symphony No 5. As Lahav Shani told Gramophone in an interview devoted to Bruckner: "His music has a sense not only of looking back and encompassing the history of music, but also very much looking forward and seeing the future... One can talk about Bruckner's relationship with religion, with God, and with spirituality - and perhaps this has the most influence on the atmosphere of the music - but there are also beautiful melodic lines and a sense of cantabile and continuation... I never try to impose a specific interpretation... I much prefer to let the music flow and develop and change... There is no right or wrong. Bruckner is not here for us to ask if he meant this or if he meant something else. He wrote music that is so much beyond these things, music that conveys such deep human emotion.

KEILBERTH ICON (50TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH JULY)

For five decades Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) held a central position in the musical world. That centrality was reflected in a series of top orchestral and operatic posts and in his interpretations, free of self-regarding eccentricities. His modest but highly effective conducting technique also made him the ideal recording artist. Sawallisch was a Bavarian born in Munich, city of orchestras and a great opera company, which he headed for 21 years. He started his career as an outstanding pianist and remained a sought-after accompanist to great Lieder singers and instrumentalists. Volume 1 of a complete conspectus of his Warner Classics recordings (made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 to 1997) includes wonderful Lieder and song collaborations, as well as famous concerto accompaniments for eminent soloists and a heartwarming traversal of Schubert's secular vocal and sacred choral music with Bavarian Radio colleagues. But the main focus among the 65 discs is on his symphonic achievements: Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Dvor�k - the latter's Eighth Symphony was his first published recording, from 1954. Richard Strauss, an early influence, is strongly represented. This 65CD-box brings together all the non-operatic recordings that the German conductor and pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1954 to 1997 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics).

Lahav Shani, Chief Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for the past five years, conducts the Dutch ensemble in Bruckner's epic Symphony No 7. He admires the Austrian composer for his proverbially grand musical architecture, but also for his vision and the atmosphere he creates as he builds to mighty climaxes over extended periods "... from a hint of light to the whole world". Shani's sense for symphonic structure and drama, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic's response to it, was evident in their Warner Classics recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No 5 (released in 2022). Gramophone magazine's reviewer praised "... an account where the feeling is refreshingly one of rediscovery... Shani has a wonderful nose for atmosphere... [He] reminds me just how achingly beautiful the slow movement of this piece is... and I don't think I have ever heard the transition into the hushed final pages sound quite as breathtaking... A terrific disc."

SYMPHONY 8

Great hushes, mighty crescendos, time for every duplet and triplet to be grounded and yet to resonate with momentum. This was Bruckner's maximal minimalism at it's most majestic (The Times) "the LSO's principal horn (David Pyatt) here sets down a wonderful opening benchmark for what follows... Haitink's conducting is a master-class in the art of control while appearing to stand back and let everyone play their best... This version easily holds it's own with the best." (Classic FM magazine)

Classical Music

Michael Schopper, who is known predominantly as a singer, performs here as a pianist.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

REVIEWS:
BBC Music (5/98, p.66) - Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5) - "...the New Zealand-based Tintner uses local forces in a forthright performance which lays emphasis on Bruckner's cross-rhythms. Sound textures are rich, the melodies of the slow movement particularly intense..."

REVIEWS:
BBC Music (5/98, p.66) - Performance: 5 (out of 5), Sound: 5 (out of 5) - "...What will interest aficionados is the use here of the original 1872 version....Tintner's devotion to the work shines through....The playing is excellent, the recording spaciously warm if occasionally bass-light..."

The Columbia Symphony may not have been a first-class orchestra, but Bruno Walter trained to do the right things, and it responded with first-class accounts of the Brahms symphonies. While there are instances of less-than-crack ensemble, there is also some very fine first-desk playing, and the performances as a whole are marked by a natural feeling of movement, phrasing, and expression. Walter’s approach to the music is kindly, caring, wonderfully whole – sunny but not overly brilliant, warm but not overly heated, sincere but not overly impassioned. Anyone who thinks that means the conductor was slow, shapeless, or indulgent should listen. There is thrust here, and plenty of momentum. The recordings are closely miked and somewhat bass-heavy, but in Sony’s 20-bit remastering the sound is wonderfully alive and direct. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection

14.99