Bruch: Das Lied Von Der Glocke / Van Steen, Marguerre, Et Al

$25.99
Label
CPO
Release Date
July 19, 2005
Format
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      BRUCH
    • PERFORMER
      Mario Hoff, Philharmonischer Chor Prag
    Product Details ⌄
    • RELEASE DATE
      July 19, 2005
    • UPC
      761203713028
    • CATALOG NUMBER
      777130-2
    • LABEL
      CPO
    • NUMBER OF DISCS
      2
    • GENRE
      Choral - Secular
    Works ⌄

    1. Introduction

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    2. Part I: Festgemauert in der Erden (Bass, Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    3. Part I: Praeludium

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    4. Part I: Denn mit der Freude Feierklange (Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    5. Part I: Recitative: Die Jahre fliegen pfeilgeschwind (Tenor)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Klaus Florian Vogt

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    6. Part I: O zarte Sehnsucht, susses Hoffen

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    7. Part I: Wie sich schon die Pfeifen braunen (Bass)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    8. Part I: Quartet: Denn wo das Strenge mit dem Zarten (Alto, Bass, Tenor, Soprano)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Annette Markert, Mario Hoff, Klaus Florian Vogt, Eleonore Marguerre

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    9. Part I: Der Mann muss hinaus ins ins feindliche Leben (Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    10. Part I: Recitative: Und der Vater mit frohem Blick (Tenor, Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Klaus Florian Vogt

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    11. Part I: Recitative: Woh! nun kann der Guss beginnen (Bass)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    12. Part I: Recitative: Wohltatig ist des Feuers macht (Alto, Soprano)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Annette Markert, Eleonore Marguerre

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    13. Part I: Hort ihr's wimmern (Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    14. Part I: Recitative: Einen Blick nach dem Grabe (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Eleonore Marguerre, Annette Markert, Klaus Florian Vogt, Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    15. Part II: In die Erd' ist's aufgenommen (Bass)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    16. Part II: Recitative: Dem dunklen Schoss der heil'gen Erde (Bass)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    17. Part II: Von dem Dome schwer und bang (Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    18. Part II: Aria: Ach! die Gattin ist's, die teure (Alto)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Annette Markert

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    19. Part II: Bis die Glocke sich verkuhlet (Bass)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    20. Part II: Intermezzo - Munter fordert seine Schritte (Alto, Tenor, Bass)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Annette Markert, Klaus Florian Vogt, Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    21. Part II: Recitative: Heil'ge Ordnung (Soprano)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Eleonore Marguerre

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    22. Part II: Heil'ge Ordnung (Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    23. Part II: Trio: Holder Friede, susse Einatracht (Soprano, Alto, Tenor)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Eleonore Marguerre, Annette Markert, Klaus Florian Vogt

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    24. Part II: Recitative: Nun zerbrecht mir das Gebaude (Bass)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    25. Part II: Der Meister kann die Form zerbrechen (Bass, Tenor, Alto, Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff, Klaus Florian Vogt, Annette Markert

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    26. Part II: Recitative: Freude hat mir Gott geggeben (Bass)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    27. Part II: Quartet: Und dies sei fortan ihr Beruf (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Eleonore Marguerre, Annette Markert, Klaus Florian Vogt, Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen

    28. Part II: Quartet: Jetzo mit der Kraft des Stranges (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass, Chorus)

      Composer: Max Bruch

      Ensemble: Philharmonischer Chor Prag, Staatskapelle Weimar

      Performer: Eleonore Marguerre, Annette Markert, Klaus Florian Vogt, Mario Hoff

      Conductor: Jac van Steen


Not too many years ago Max Bruch was close to being a "one-hit wonder" in the classical music lists, that hit being his G minor violin concerto. There were a couple of shorter pieces, notably the Kol Nidrei, but there was little available evidence to judge the opinion of some familiar observers that Bruch was as great a composer as his contemporary Johannes Brahms.


With the CD era came an expansion of recorded repertoire, and now Bruch's three symphonies, more concertos, and several other large-scale works are available. None I've heard shows that he was near Brahms' equal, but they have solid workmanship, good melodies, considerable imagination, and other virtues that result in worthwhile music. However, what likely kept Bruch from the highest compositional magnitude is his music's pervasive comfortable Victorian bourgeois outlook.


A look at Bruch's catalog reveals an emphasis on choral music, including that form so beloved of Victorians, the oratorio. Lay of the Bell (as its title is rendered in the flowery English translation of Edward Bulwer Lytton used in CPO's detailed program book) is not religious, but it is moralistic. Schiller's text was a mainstay of German sentiment during the 19th century. Casting a bell in a foundry is an allegory for raising a child to be a good person, presumed to be the path to ensuring personal prosperity and a well-ordered society. This sentiment foundered on the shoals of World War I and went under entirely during the Nazi era.

So this 100-minute-long choral and orchestral piece comes with a strike against it: It's a bit hard to read the text (particularly in the overheated language of Bulwer Lytton, he most famed for "It was a dark and stormy night...") without sniggering, the while Bruch's music plows on with undiminished earnestness. However, heard without first reading program notes or text, it becomes a very interesting, entertaining work, and it remains so on subsequent listening. There is some stodginess in the music, but it doesn't drag despite the pompous text. The large form is shaped well, so that the unexpected presence of the Christmas tune "Silent Night" at the work's end (unexplained by the notes or the text) evokes a satisfying frisson.

The performers approach the work as worthy of admiration, and they prove that it is. Fine melodies, along with an intriguing harmonic language marrying Brahmsian solidity with Wagnerian love of suspensions and other devices to keep harmonies unpredictable, make the music interesting. The four soloists are a fine group, singing with lyrical tones rather than the barking sound often heard in middle-European oratorio performances. Jac van Steen and his orchestra and chorus work well together, and the live audience is well behaved. The sound is a bit opaque, but not to a troublesome degree.

This is a big piece, obviously intended by the composer to be an Important Work. Ein Deutsches Requiem it ain't, but in this recording it provides a welcome insight into a composer who evidently has a lot of good unknown music still mouldering on library shelves.
--Joseph Stevenson, ClassicsToday.com