This is the first volume of the Bruckner Archive series, devoted to the composer's less-known music. All the items belong to Bruckner's years as a parish school teacher at St Florian. Listeners who only know his longer works will, I'm sure, get much pleasure from these uncomplicated and concise pieces. The Magnificat includes all the ingredients expected of an ecclesiastical Latin setting in the mid-nineteenth century, but it is charged with an unexpected briskness.
The Missa solemnis is in less of a hurry but certainly does not hang about. Both works are delightful Romantic flowerings inspired by true devotional feeling. There is some rich singing from the soloists and there is the extra pleasure of two short arias, one for Christmas and one for Passiontide. The choir is warm and expressive, if at times a trifle woolly, and they are expressively supported by the orchestra. One gets the impression that clarity was difficult to achieve in the Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and the quality of the pressing of Side 2 detracts from the purity of the Agnus Dei. Future issues will be something to look forward to, but I hope they will not be marred by any technical problems.'