Anton Bruckner - Te Deum; Motets; Psalm 150 (Eugen Jochum)

Information

Composer: Anton Bruckner

1. Te Deum in C major, for soloists, chorus & orchestra: 1. Te Deum laudamus
2. Te Deum in C major, for soloists, chorus & orchestra: 2. Te ergo
3. Te Deum in C major, for soloists, chorus & orchestra: 3. Aeterna fac
4. Te Deum in C major, for soloists, chorus & orchestra: 4. Salvum fac
5. Te Deum in C major, for soloists, chorus & orchestra: 5. In te, Domine, speravi
6. Locus iste
7. Ave Maria
8. Tota pulchra es, Maria
9. Virga Jesse
10. Ecce sacerdos magnus
11. Afferentur regi
12. Pange lingua
13. Os justi
14. Vexilla regis
15. Christus factus est pro nobis
16. Psalm 150, for soprano, chorus & orchestra

Maria Stader, soprano (1-5, 16)
Sieglinde Wagner, alto/contralto (1-5)
Ernst Haefliger, tenor (1-5)
Peter Lagger, bass (1-5)
Wolfgang Meyer, organ (1-5)
Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin, chorus master Walter Hagen-Groll (1-5, 16)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (1-5, 16)
Richard Holm, tenor (8)
Hedwig Bilgram, organ (8, 10)
Bavarian Radio Chorus, chorus master Wolfgang Schubert (6-15)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (10)
Eugen Jochum, conductor

Date: 1965 (1-5, 16), 1966 (6-15)
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/cat/4577432

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Review

"What seraphic music. It must be Bruckner", remarked a friend who entered the room as I was playing this recording. I cannot recommend this mid-price four-disc set too highly, both as performances and recordings. Seraphic is the word. Bruckner's three settings of the Mass are enough in themselves to convert the heathen. I cannot possibly decide which of them I like most, though my head tells me that No. 2 in E minor, with its wind-only accompaniment, is the greatest. What is obvious is that they are the work of a master of choral music, who knew infallibly what effects he wished to create and how to create them, who had the acoustics of a cathedral inbuilt into his notes as he put them on paper and who can rightly be compared with Palestrina in the purity and emotional fervour of his art.

The recordings were made between 1963 and 1972 and come now as a wonderful memorial tribute to Eugen Jochum. His conducting of Bruckner's symphonies was always admired but he had rivals there who could provide alternative routes to the towering peaks. I cannot believe he has a peer in this sacred music. The transfers to CD are magnificent and allow us to hear every nuance of the singing of the Bavarian Radio Chorus in the Masses and 10 motets and of the Deutsche Oper Chorus in the Te Deum and Psalm 150. The 1971 performance of the E minor Mass has not previously been issued in Britain, and it is of the highest quality, with most sensitive and expressive oboe playing.

If you play the beginning of the Mass in F minor you will obtain an immediate impression of how good these performances are and of the intensely moving nature of the music. Here is the symphonic Bruckner in all his heaven-scaling rapture but without some of the repetitious features which deter some listeners (though not those who are fully prepared to enter his world). The soloists are good in all the performances but Maria Stader and Kim Borg excel in this Mass. Stader is superb too, in the really astounding Te Deum.

Not least of the excellence of this generous issue are the ten short motets, most of which will, I suspect, be unfamiliar to many listeners. Each one is a gem of its kind—a most touching Ave Maria, for instance, a moving Pange lingua and an elaborate Ecce sacerdos magnus. The presentation of the discs by DG is first class, with all the texts in translation and a most illuminating essay.

-- Gramophone
reviewing DG 423 127-2 - ANTON BRUCKNER: SACRED WORKS FOR CHORUS - EUGEN JOCHUM (Box set 4 CD)

More reviews:
http://www.amazon.com/Bruckner-Deum-Motets-Psalm-150/dp/B00000J9H8
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bruckner-Deum-Motets-The-Originals/dp/B00000J9H8

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Anton Bruckner (4 September 1824 – 11 October 1896)) was an Austrian composer. His symphonies are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character, and considerable length. Bruckner composed eleven symphonies, scored for a fairly standard orchestra. His orchestration was modeled after the sound of his primary instrument, the pipe organ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Bruckner

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Eugen Jochum (1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987) was an eminent German conductor. Jochum is considered by many to have been the foremost Bruckner conductor of the mid- to late twentieth century; he producing many outstanding recordings of Bruckner's symphonies (as well as worthy interpretations of a great many other composers).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Jochum

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