Talk:Psalm 146 (Bruckner)

Bruckner's greatest and least known Psalm

Bruckner's Psalm 146, his greatest psalm and - with the Requiem and the Missa solemnis - the third most representative work of the St Florian period, remains for obscure reasons the least known and recorded (a single long out-of-print LP). It is very strange that this splendid psalm is so little known and recorded. As written in The Cambridge Companion to Bruckner, "[It] deserves to be heard more often." --Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 09:51, 29 July 2011 (UTC)

This single commercial recording of Psalm 146 is now transferred to CD together with the historical recording of the Requiem by Hans Michael Beuerle (LP: Cantate 658 231, 1972). Hopefully the merites of this forgotten work will so be better appreciated. --Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 11:03, 17 November 2011 (UTC)

Performances, recordings and edition

The examples of the Magnificat, Psalm 114 and Psalm 146 are quite unique, because they were first recorded 1984, and 1987 and 1972 (first performance: 28 November 1971), using scores prepared especially for these performances, long before they were officially issued by Paul Hawkshaw in 1996/97 in the Gesamtausgabe.

For Psalm 146, the performance by Riedelbauch using a copy of Bruckner's manuscript had been issued on LP in 1972. The next performances occurred in Vienna and in Biel by Heinz Wallberg with the Niederosterreichische Tonkuenstler Orchestra twenty years later (10 and 11 November 1991), of which a recording is put in John Berky's Bruckner Archive. The American premiere (13 January 1995) by Leon Botstein, which was using the score prepared by Hawkshaw for the Gesamtausgabe, has also been put in the Bruckner Archive. So far van Zwol, Roelofs, Berky and I know, no other performances of this work occurred in the meantime.

Via the Bruckner Archive I had acquired a digitalisation of Riedelbauch's LD (CD: Charter Oak COR-357), already before it was reissued by Klassic-Haus (CD: KHCD-2011-092). Later I have got a digitalisation of Botstein's live-performance (CD: American Symphony Orchestra), and more recently of Wallberg's live-performance (CD: Charter Oak COR-970). --Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 14:16, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

A 2015 performance by Gerd Schaller

Gerd Schaller performed Bruckner's Psalm 146 and Mass No. 3 during the Ebrach Summer Music Festival on 6 September 2015. A record of this performance has been put in the Bruckner Archive (CD: Charter Oak COR-2179). The performance will be later commercially issued on CD by Profil.

As Ken Ward recenses:

... Bruckner's setting of Psalm 146 is virtually unknown, the score only published in an edition by Paul Hawkshaw in 1996. It is a large scale work for soloists, double choir and orchestra, an ambitious cantata lasting about half an hour. But there is no mention of it anywhere in Bruckner's correspondence, nothing in any memoirs, no information about what occasion might have led him to write it, no performance in his lifetime. And listening to it, you wonder if indeed it is his music at all, it is so unlike his later sacred choral works, much more like Mendelssohn. But it is Bruckner: we have the composition score in his hand and a fair copy with his emendations all over it, which looks to have been written in the late 1850s, a decade before any of the numbered symphonies were to appear. Obscure it may be, but it could receive no more compelling advocacy than that provided by Maestro Schaller and the choir, soloists and orchestra assembled in the abbey for this jubilee concert.

And as Hans Roelofs writes:

Gerd Schallers Bruckner-Zyklus bei Profil neigt sich ihrem Ende zu. Neben der f-moll-Symphonie wurden im vergangenen Herbst in Ebrach der Psalm 146 und die Messe Nr. 3 aufgeführt und gesendet ... der Psalm 146 füllt eine Lücke in der Diskografie: Die alte LP-Aufnahme von Riedelbauch, jahrzehntelang die einzige am Markt, gibt/gab es nur als amerikanische Klassichaus-CD, eine neuere Aufnahme ist dringend gewünscht. (Gerd Schaller's Bruckner cycle by Profil is approaching his end. Beside the Symphony in F minor, Psalm 146 and Mass No. 3 were during the previous autumn performed and recorded in Ebrach … the Psalm 146 fills in a gap in the discography. The old LP-recording by Riedelbauch is/was for years only commercially available as an American Klassichaus-CD. A more recent recording is strongly wanted.)

--Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 12:10, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Critical review of the performances

• W. Riedlelbauch (1972): studio recording. LP recently remastered to CD. Good choirs and soloists, balance between orchestra and choirs somewhat in favour of the choirs. Two separate 4-part choirs in “Groß ist unser Herr”, with nice, antiphonal effect. Duration: 33 min. I find it still the reference performance of the work. De gustibus ...
• H. Wallberg (1991, live): not issued, a somewhat less optimal recording. Good choirs and soloists, balance between orchestra and choirs somewhat in favour of the orchestra. Duration: 31 min. Somewhat more vigorous performance, slower in “Singet dem Herrn mit Danksagung”. Available on Youtube.
• L. Botstein (1995, live): not issued, quite disappointing, because of not optimal recording. Soloists of lesser quality, not always good audible. Duration: 30 min. Some parts are played too fast, not enough religious. Best part: the final choir and fugue “Alleluja! Lobet den Herrn”.
• G. Schaller (2015, live): a nice performance. Good choir and soloists, balance between orchestra and choir somewhat in favour of the orchestra. Duration 30 min.
  NB: This performance has later been issued on CD, together with Schaller's performances of Bruckner's Mass in F minor and Bruckner's organ works. A valued CD box!

--Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 16:35, 10 January 2016 (UTC)

Yesterday I have listen again to Riedelbauch's and Schaller's recordings. Although Schaller's recording meets a higher level musically and technically, Riedelbauch's remains IMO the reference recording.

Schaller's live recording used in Part 3 a 8-voice mixed choir and missed so the the antiphonic effect of the – on Bruckner's score required – two separate 4-voice mixed choirs, as in Riedelbauch's studio recording. In addition, I find parts 1 and 5 of Riedelbauch's recording more lyrical than that of Schaller's recording.

--Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 10:27, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Gerd Schaller's CD

The CD box with Schaller's performances of Mass No. 3 and Psalm 146 is just issued.

Hans Roelofs writes in Neuheiten: … von dem Psalm 146 gibt es bisher nur eine einzige wenn auch gute Aufnahme, nämlich von Wolfgang Riedelbauch, auf einer LP aus 1972 – eine Aufnahme, die also über vierzig Jahre alt und nur als US-Reprint auf CD lieferbar ist. Die neue Aufnahme unter Schaller füllt deshalb eine Lücke, besonders weil sie sowohl musikalisch wie aufnahmetechnisch hohe Ansprüche erfüllt. (Till now, there was only a single, albeit good recording of Psalm 146 by Wolfgang Riedelbauch on a LP of 1972 – a more than 40-year old recording, which is only available as US-Reprint on CD. The new recording by Schaller fills in a gap, all the more since it meets the high claims musically and technically.)

On Musicweb international, John Proffitt writes: I've known Psalm 146 from an early 1970s LP recording from the Nürnberg Symphony. I liked this piece very much from this beginning and was mystified as to why it seemed ignored or forgotten among Bruckner's compositions. After the Ebrach concert I think I understand this conundrum. Psalm 146 requires large forces for performance and is extremely demanding music for the singers when they must learn it from scratch, which is definitely the case with such a little known work. Had it been "discovered" and announced as a hitherto unknown work of Mendelssohn or Schumann, I think it would have been taken into the choral repertoire quickly. We know it is by Bruckner, but it doesn't sound like Bruckner, so it's stuck in a kind of musical no-man's-land. And like much of Bruckner's music, it takes an inspired and empathetic conductor to realize an inspired performance. Maestro Gerd Schaller is certainly such a conductor, in whose hands the music takes flight to spiritual realms far beyond the notes and words printed on the page.

On his website, John Berky writes: This new release marks the Ebrach Summer Festival's 25th anniversary and it is a marvelous collection of Bruckner's works. The most notable offering is a rare performance of Bruckner's Psalm 146 for soloists, chorus and orchestra.

PS: Hans and I only regret that Schaller's live recording uses in Part 3 a 8-voice mixed choir, instead of two separate 4-voice mixed choirs. It is so missing the nice antiphonal effect of Riedelbauch's studio recording (Nur ein Wermutstropfen bleibt: Die Doppelchorigkeit des 3. Satzes ist nur bei Riedelbauch deutlich hörbar und entfaltet ihre Wirkung, bei Schaller lässt sie sich bestenfalls erahnen). --Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 19:14, 9 September 2016 (UTC)

Name?

While Psalm 146 is the name of the piece, most readers will know a different psalm under that name. What can we do? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 07:23, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Dear Gerda,

In the leader of the page Psalm 146 you can read "This article is about Psalm 146 in Hebrew (Masoretic) numbering. For Psalms 146 and 147 in Greek (Septuagint or Vulgate) numbering, see Psalm 147".
In that of the page Psalm 146 (Bruckner), you can read "Psalm 146 in A major (WAB 37) by Anton Bruckner ... is a setting of verses 1 to 11 of a German version of Psalm 147, which is Psalm 146 in the Vulgata.".

Which suggestion do you have to disambiguate it better?

Best regards, --Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 09:07, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

Smiling, don't tell me what I can read in Psalm 146, because I wrote it. When I wanted to add settings I was happy to find that Bruckner, only to find out it doesn't belong. I really don't know what to do. Some articles say Psalmus 146 for (part of) Psalm 147, but that would change Bruckner's title. Could we use his German title, and leave the other as a redirect, perhaps? Or the first line? - Once we are here: IMSLP for Psalm 146 has French compositions (last item) which also mean Psalm 147, - could you move them? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:09, 5 April 2021 (UTC)

NB: Dear Gerda, the same problem exists for Psalm 112 (Bruckner), that is a setting of Psalm 113, and Psalm 114 (Bruckner), that is a setting of verses 1-9 of Psalm 116... --Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 05:20, 6 April 2021 (UTC)