Bruckner Mass No. 3; Te Deum
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Anton Bruckner
Label: EMI
Magazine Review Date: 11/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 79
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 556168-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Mass No. 3 |
Anton Bruckner, Composer
Alfred Muff, Bass Anton Bruckner, Composer Birgit Remmert, Contralto (Female alto) Deon van der Walt, Tenor Franz Welser-Möst, Conductor Jane Eaglen, Soprano Linz Mozart Choir London Philharmonic Orchestra |
| Te Deum |
Anton Bruckner, Composer
Alfred Muff, Bass Anton Bruckner, Composer Birgit Remmert, Contralto (Female alto) Deon van der Walt, Tenor Franz Welser-Möst, Conductor Jane Eaglen, Soprano Linz Mozart Choir London Philharmonic Orchestra |
Author: Marc Rochester
Hot on the heels of the Gramophone Award-winning account of Schmidt’s Fourth Symphony (1/96) Franz Welser-Most has turned his attention to another undervalued late-romantic Austrian masterpiece. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find this disc on the nomination lists for next year’s Awards.
Bruckner was a devout Christian whose deep, simplistic faith informed every note he wrote, yet it was into his religious choral music that he poured his innermost soul. So it’s sometimes difficult to relate this intensely spiritual composer of devotional music with the composer of huge, almost erotic symphonic structures. Yet where the two coincide the result is music of enormous passion, intensity and colour. The F minor Mass, the largest of his choral works and to my mind the greatest piece Bruckner ever wrote, is a lavish affair indeed from which Welser-Most extracts every ounce of emotion and passion. The quartet of soloists, for all their manifest strengths, give the impression of trying a little too hard for their own good; in that respect I have to say I prefer the quartet with Matthew Best and his Corydon Singers and Orchestra. In other ways, though, Best, in focusing his reading on the spiritual side of Bruckner’s sublime creation, misses out on the sheer, almost operatic, spectacle of Welser-Most’s riveting performance – although I have a vague suspicion (certainly as pointlessly speculative as the booklet’s claim that Bruckner “went to the grave celibate”) that the composer would have preferred Best’s interpretation.
Raw excitement on an almost primeval level sets the scene for the exhilarating Te Deum. Here again Welser-Most goes at it with all guns blazing. Joakim Svenhedren treats us to a ravishing solo violin obbligato in the “Aeterna fac” but this is only the briefest of respites in a performance which sweeps all before it in a consuming whirlwind of energy. Again there is very strong competition from Best and the Corydons who find a greater depth to this music than Welser-Most and his team. But if it’s sheer, unbridled excitement you want nothing beats this outstanding new offering from EMI.'
Bruckner was a devout Christian whose deep, simplistic faith informed every note he wrote, yet it was into his religious choral music that he poured his innermost soul. So it’s sometimes difficult to relate this intensely spiritual composer of devotional music with the composer of huge, almost erotic symphonic structures. Yet where the two coincide the result is music of enormous passion, intensity and colour. The F minor Mass, the largest of his choral works and to my mind the greatest piece Bruckner ever wrote, is a lavish affair indeed from which Welser-Most extracts every ounce of emotion and passion. The quartet of soloists, for all their manifest strengths, give the impression of trying a little too hard for their own good; in that respect I have to say I prefer the quartet with Matthew Best and his Corydon Singers and Orchestra. In other ways, though, Best, in focusing his reading on the spiritual side of Bruckner’s sublime creation, misses out on the sheer, almost operatic, spectacle of Welser-Most’s riveting performance – although I have a vague suspicion (certainly as pointlessly speculative as the booklet’s claim that Bruckner “went to the grave celibate”) that the composer would have preferred Best’s interpretation.
Raw excitement on an almost primeval level sets the scene for the exhilarating Te Deum. Here again Welser-Most goes at it with all guns blazing. Joakim Svenhedren treats us to a ravishing solo violin obbligato in the “Aeterna fac” but this is only the briefest of respites in a performance which sweeps all before it in a consuming whirlwind of energy. Again there is very strong competition from Best and the Corydons who find a greater depth to this music than Welser-Most and his team. But if it’s sheer, unbridled excitement you want nothing beats this outstanding new offering from EMI.'
Bruckner Mass No. 3; Te Deum
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