SOMM Recordings continues its six-volume Bruckner from the Archives series in celebration of the bicentennial of Anton Bruckner with the penultimate Volume 5, featuring his Sixth and Seventh Symphonies and the Te Deum.
The series owes its unprecedented success to SOMM Executive Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer, Lani Spahr. He conceived and designed the series in collaboration with Professor Ben Korstvedt, author of the authoritative notes, and John F. Berky, Executive Secretary of the Bruckner Society of America and Series Consultant.
Bruckner thought of his Symphony No. 6 in A major (1881) as his boldest, his “sauciest,” symphony. Sadly, it was not published during his lifetime, and he heard only the Adagio and Scherzo performed. When the first full performance was given by Gustav Mahler in 1899 and published that same year, it was with cuts and edits. The original version of Bruckner’s score was not published until 1935, and this version is performed here in a 1961 recording with Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The Symphony No. 7 in E major (1885) provided Bruckner with his public breakthrough. The first performance in Leipzig came just over a year after its completion, and the second performance the following year was even more warmly received by Munich’s music lovers. The Bavarian King, Ludwig II, was so impressed with the symphony that he financed its immediate publication. By the late 1880s, Bruckner’s Seventh was being widely performed, from Amsterdam and Berlin to New York and Chicago. The performance of the symphony included here is a 1955 recording by what was then the South German Radio Symphony (now the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra) led by their long-time music director, Hans Müller-Kray.
Anton Bruckner was a devoutly religious man, and he composed his Te Deum(1884) “out of gratitude to God.” The work being contemporaneous with his Seventh Symphony, elements of Bruckner’s mature symphonic style find their way into this sacred text. It received its first full performance at the Vienna Musikverein in 1886, and the recording on this release was made in that same hall in 1962, during a concert celebrating the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. The performance features Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Singverein.
Lani Spahr’s previous SOMM releases include the lauded four-volume sets Vaughan Williams Live (ARIADNE 5016, 5018, 5019, 5020) and Elgar Remastered (SOMMCD 261-4), as well as two Gramophone Editor’s Choice picks: Elgar from America Vol 3 (ARIADNE 5015-2) for “superb audio restorations [bringing] performances fully to life” and Bruckner from the Archives Vol. 1 (ARIADNE 5025-2) for the “high standards achieved here, where expert audio restoration and remastering is by Lani Spahr.”
On This Recording
Disc 1
Symphony No. 6 in A Major, WAB 106 (1881 Version, Ed. Nowak) (58:03)a
- I. Majestoso (15:46)
- II. Adagio. Sehr feierlich (18:01)
- III. Scherzo. Nicht schnell – Trio. Langsam (9:16)
- IV. Finale. Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (14:58)
Te Deum, WAB 45 (23:23)b
- I. Te Deum. Allegro. Feierlich mit Kraft (6:20)
- II. Te ergo. Moderato (2:33)
- III. Aeterna fac. Allegro. Feierlich mit Kraft (1:32)
- IV. Salvum fac. Moderato (6:22)
- V. In te, Domine, speravi (6:35)
Disc 2
Symphony No. 7 in E Major, WAB 107 (1884/85, Ed. Nowak)c
- I. Allegro moderato (18:12)
- II. Adagio. Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam (22:05)
- III. Scherzo. Sehr schnell – Trio. Etwas langsamer (9:00)
- IV. Finale. Bewegt, doch nicht schnell (11:43)
aNDR Symphony Orchestra; Christoph von Dohnányi (conductor)
bWilma Lipp; Elisabeth Höngen; Nicolai Gedda; Walter Kreppel; Vienna Singverein; Vienna Philharmonic; Herbert von Karajan (conductor)
cSouth German Radio Symphony Orchestra; Hans Müller-Kray (conductor)
