Bruckner: The Masses

In this recording, the chorus and orchestra is the Bavarian Radio Symphony, and the conductor is Eugen Jochum.

## Bruckner: Mass No. 1

The Mass No. 1 in D minor, WAB 26 by Anton Bruckner, is a setting of the Mass ordinary for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra, and organ.

After he had ended his eight-year study period with Sechter and Kitzler and he had composed a few smaller works, such as the Festive Cantata (1862) and Psalm 112 (1863), Bruckner composed his first grand Mass, the Mass in D minor. He completed the work on 29 September 1864.

The premiere of the Mass in the old Linz Cathedral on 20 November 1864 was successful. A laudatory review in the *Linzer Zeitung* described Bruckner's potential as a symphonic composer and ranked the D minor Mass in the highest echelon of church music.

Four weeks later, the Mass was performed again during a "Concert spirituel" in the *Linzer Redoutensaal*. Because there was no organ available in the *Redoutensaal*, Bruckner composed an alternative with woodwinds (clarinets and bassoons) for the short organ intermezzo in the mid-section of the *Credo* (manuscript Mus.Hs. 3170). Bruckner's manuscript (Mus.Hs. 19423) and the organ score are archived in the *Österreichische Nationalbibliothek*.

Bruckner revised the work in 1876 and again in 1881–1882. The (small) differences between the versions concern mainly annotations about articulation and dynamics.

### Instrumentation

The work is scored for: SATB Choir and soloists, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns in F, 2 Trumpets in F, Alto, Tenor and Bass Trombones, Timpani, Strings and Organ.

### Movements

The movements are named as follows:

1. Kyrie - Alla breve (mehr langsam)
2. Gloria - Allegro - Meno mosso - Tempo I - Etwas langsamer
3. Credo - Moderato - Langsam (Adagio) - Allegro - Tempo des 1.Satzes
4. Sanctus - Maestoso - Allegro moderato
5. Benedictus - Moderato - Allegro moderato
6. Agnus Dei - Andante quasi Allegro - Allgero moderato

## Bruckner: Mass No. 2

The Mass No. 2 in E minor, WAB 27, by Anton Bruckner is a setting of the mass ordinary for eight-part mixed choir and fifteen wind instruments.

The bishop of Linz, Franz-Josef Rudigier, had already commissioned a Festive cantata from Bruckner in 1862 to celebrate the laying of the foundation stone of the new cathedral, the Maria-Empfängnis-Dom. In 1866, he asked Bruckner for a mass to celebrate the accomplishment of the construction of the Votive Chapel of the new cathedral. Because of a delay in completing the construction, the celebration of the dedication didn't take place until three years later, on 29 September 1869 on the *Neuer Domplatz*. The performers were the Liedertafel *Frohsinn*, the *Sängerbund* and *Musikverein* of Linz, and the wind band of the *k.k. Infanterieregiment* 'Ernst Ludwig, Großherzog von Hessen und bei Rhein Nr. 14'. The manuscript and the '**Widmungspartitur'** are archived in the episcopate of Linz.

Bruckner subjected the work to far-reaching revision in 1869, 1876, and 1882. The second version of 1882 was performed on 4 October 1885 in the Alter Dom, Linz by the Liedertafel Frohsinn, the Sängerbund and Musikverein of Linz under the baton of Adalbert Schreyer.

### Instrumentation

The piece is scored for: eight-part mixed choir, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets and 3 Trombones.

### Movements

The movements are named as follows:

1. Kyrie - Feierlich
2. Gloria - Allegro - Andante - Tempo I
3. Credo - Allegro moderato - Adagio - Allegro - Tempo I
4. Sanctus - Ruhig; mehr langsam
5. Benedictus - Moderato
6. Agnus Dei - Andante

## Bruckner: Mass No. 3

The Mass No. 3 in F minor, WAB 28, by Anton Bruckner is a setting of the mass ordinary for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra, and organ ad libitum.

After the 1867 success of his Mass No. 1 in D minor, Bruckner was commissioned "to write a new Mass for the Burgkapelle." Bruckner wrote the first version between Septembers 1867–1868 in Linz (just before his move to Vienna).

The first rehearsals, conducted by Johann Herbeck at the court church, the Augustinerkirche, took place in 1868 or 1869, but "were badly attended by orchestral players" and were "generally unsuccessful." Ultimately, Herbeck found the mass "too long and unsingable." After various delays, the mass was finally premiered on June 16, 1872, at the Augustinerkirche, with Bruckner himself conducting. Herbeck changed his opinion of the piece, claiming to know only two masses: this one and Beethoven's Missa solemnis. Franz Liszt and even Eduard Hanslick praised the piece. A second performance occurred in the *Hofmusikkapelle* on 8 December 1873. The manuscript is archived at the *Österreichische Nationalbibliothek*.

After the third performance (30 July 1876), Bruckner made slight revisions on the *Kyrie* and the *Gloria*, and in 1877 on the *Credo*. He made a further revision on the *Credo* in 1881, in preparation for performances at the Hofkapelle, mainly to address "difficulties of execution", but also to take into account what he had learned from studying Mozart's Requiem, correcting some instances of parallel octaves if not justified by Mozart's example. In some later performances, Bruckner was in the organ loft rather than on the podium.

### Instrumentation

The work is scored for: SATB Choir and Soloists, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns in F, 2 Horns in Bb, 2 Trumpets in C, Alto, Tenor and Bass trombones, Timpani, Strings, and organ *ad libitum*.

### Movements

The movements are named as follows:

1. Kyrie - Moderato
2. Gloria - Allegro - Andante, mehr Adagio (sehr langsam) - Tempo I - Ziemlich langsam
3. Credo - Allegro - Moderato misterioso - Langsam - Largo - Allegro - Tempo I - Moderato - Allegro - Etwas langsamer als anfangs - Allegro
4. Sanctus - Moderato - Allegro
5. Benedictus - Allegro moderato - Allegro
6. Agnus Dei - Andante - Moderato

## Program Note - Masses as musical moments

In concert hall and church alike, Eugen Jochum approached Bruckner's three great masses as major works which laid the foundations of the symphonies. They were composed in the difficult years before Bruckner moved to Vienna. Organist at Linz Cathedral and a late developer as a composer, he was often ill and racked with self-doubt. He clung to the Ordinary of the Mass and the unchanging stations of Roman Catholic liturgy. The juxtaposition of his expressive gestures is very telling, especially in the two masses with orchestra, the D minor (first performed in Linz, 20 September 1864) and the F minor (finished 1868, first performed in Vienna, 1872): humble pleading and triumphal climaxes, mysticism and radiant certainty, contrapuntal gravity and symphonic drama. Of the three, the one best suited to liturgical use is the Mass in E minor (composed 1866 and first performed in Linz in 1869), set for a large choir, accompanied and sometimes supported by a wind ensemble. One of the unmistakable features of this work is its reference back to Palestrina's masses and vocal polyphony, but - unlike the church-sponsored "Cecilian" movement that sought to revive Palestrina's style by means of bland imitation of a remote model - Bruckner's instinct and his profound technical mastery enabled him to combine the archaicism with the dynamic principles of the late Romanticism. The echoes of traditional a cappella polyphony in the E minor Mass reverberate within a late Romantic sound-world. Eugen Jochum returned to the work throughout his life; from the time of his appointment with the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra (1934-49) he customarily performed it before a Bruckner symphony. He usually conducted the two orchestral masses in churches, although not in the context of services - yet Bruckner intended them for liturgical use and designed their formal dimensions accordingly. Whenever possible, Jochum used the original versions as edited by Robert Haas, published during the 1930s; in the case of the E minor Mass he liked to perform the 1882 version, the one which represents Bruckner's own wishes. For many years it was impossible to perform Bruckner's scores, especially the symphonies, as he originally wrote them; instead there were the "performing versions" produced by well-meaning practical musicians who only wanted to make Bruckner's uncommon musical language accessible to the public. Alongside his one-time teacher, Siegmund von Hausegger (1872-1948), the young Eugen Jochum was one of the first conductors to overcome strong opposition and give audiences what now seems only right: Bruckner's music in its original form or in versions of attested authenticity.

Jochum was a tall, scholarly-looking man, trained as an interpreter in the late 19th-century tradition of intense musical expressiveness, and had a wide repertory. As he grew old he concentrated on Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner and Bruckner. He was president of the German Bruckner Society and conducted many concerts of Bruckner's music in the abbey church of St. Florian. But he was modern enough to appreciate the potential of radio and the gramophone. He founded and directed the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; he recorded complete operas for Deutsche Grammophon in the early 1960s (Der Freischütz, Lohengrin, Cosi fan tutte, Die Entführung aus den Serail and others); visiting Japan and the USA late in his career, he seemed to embody a specifically German type of paternal, magisterial conductor.

The soloists in the 1962 recording of the F minor Mass are the Hungarian-born Swiss soprano Maria Stader (b. 1911), the Swiss-born lyric tenor Ernst Haefliger (b. 1919) and the Finn Kim Borg (b. 1919). The D minor Mass brings together a famous Mozartian, Edith Mathis, Marga Schiml - a Bayreuth Magdalene, the Polish tenor Wiesław Ochman, and the bass Karl Riddersbusch, a stalwart of the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals. The organ part in the F minor Mass is played by Anton Nowakowski (1897-1968), one of the best German organists of his time. The members of the Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio are an exceptionally faithful band: most of those who perform in these recordings were recruited by Eugen Jochum in 1949 when he set about organizing the musical institutions of the Munich radio station according to Anglo-American models.

*Karl Schumann*

*(Translation: Mary Whittall)*

## Reviews

The listener to Eugen Jochum's monumental performances of Anton Bruckner's three great masses cannot fail to recognize that the interpretation and the music are both intimately bound up with the words of the Mass Ordinary, the nucleus of the Roman Catholic liturgy. Bruckner and Jochum (1902-87) were both devout Catholics, both the sons of schoolteachers, and both came to music through playing the organ - Bruckner in the Upper Austrian village of Ansfelden, Jochum in the small town of Babenhausen in Swabia in Bavaria. Playing for church services was their formative musical experience.

These recordings, made between 1962 and 1971, when Jochum was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, have been landed as "a notable tribute to the art of the conductor. The singing of the respective choirs is thrilling" (Gramophone Good CD Guide). The performance of the Mass no.3 has been singled out as a "fervent, inspired account of the great work" (Gramophone).

## Links

For the playlist of the album, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U92y8mCemlU&list=OLAK5uy\_mCM2p5GXE7f5UlnsIfl1tO4Xo4RRYdJmQ

For more details on the album, click here: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/bruckner-masses-nos-13-jochum-3388

For the official Deutsche Grammophon website, click here: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en

## Notes

* Art Direction - Hartmut Pfeiffer
* Basses - Karl Riddersbusch, Kim Borg
* Choir - Bavarian Radio
* Chorus Masters - Josef Schmidhuber, Kurt Prestel
* Co-Producer - Bavarian Radio
* Composer - Anton Bruckner
* Conductor - Eugen Jochum
* Contraltos - Marga Schiml, Claudia Hellmann
* Engineers - Klaus Scheibe, Walter Sommer
* Executive-Producer - Elsa Schiller
* Liner Notes - Karl Schumann, Mary Whittall, Hélène Chen-Ménissier, Manuela Amadei
* Orchestra - Bavarian Radio Symphony
* Organists - Elmar Schloter, Anton Nowakowski
* Photographer - Werner Neumeister
* Producers - Günther Breest, Hans Ritter
* Sopranos - Edith Mathis, Maria Stader
* Tenors - Wiesław Ochman, Ernst Haefliger
* Sound - Stereo
* Recording dates - January 1972 (Mass No. 1), February 1971 (Mass No. 2), July 1962 (Mass No. 3)
* Recording venue - Munich, Residenz, Herkules-Saal
* Total duration disc 1 - 73'07
* Total duration disc 2 - 75'08