This is a most fascinating
disc. For the dedicated Brucknerian,
for the student of the 1920s in general
or the Second Viennese School in particular
- indeed for any intelligent (for which
read 'open-minded and broad-minded')
listener - it promises to be a very
interesting and stimulating listening
experience. It deserves note as a thoroughly
worthwhile venture for the ever-enterprising
MDG label.
Bruckner's Seventh,
completed - significantly - in the year
of Wagner's death, 1883, is in many
ways his most satisfying. It is consistent
and heartfelt in its inspiration, relatively
compact in its structure and organic
in its thinking, and lacking all the
usual (pre-7th) textual controversies.
Its highlight, surely, is the noble
Adagio, most especially the meandering
chromatic chorale which, with its unstoppable
slow momentum, shining brass and ornamental
string lines, treads relentlessly to
one of the Nineteenth Century's greatest
orchestral climaxes - and one of cymbal
players' proudest moments!
But this recording
is different ...
When Arnold Schönberg
(together with Alban Berg and Anton
Webern) founded his Verein für
musikalische Privatauffürungen
in November 1918, his intention
was to present music - and not just
contemporary music - which he regarded
as undervalued, or deserving of particular
promotion and attention. It was, as
Berg put it in a prospectus, "not a
society for composers, but exclusively
for the public": in fact the press was
expressly excluded, and applause (as
well as expressions of displeasure)
forbidden. After 118 concerts, the society
was disbanded in September 1921 - one
month before this version of
Bruckner's Seventh was completed, an
accident of history which meant that
its first performance (by the Thomas
Christian Ensemble) had to wait until
19 March 2000.
Remember that, however
much Schönberg and his three student-transcribers
genuinely valued this music, the sound
culture of the 1920s - by now relatively
linear, disciplined and monochrome -
was very different to the massively
colourful, organ-like sonorities favoured
by Bruckner. Written as it was for a
diminutive ensemble of limited range
(in terms of both dynamic and sonority)
it was inevitable that this grandest
of symphonic essays should re-emerge
as an exercise in textural 'dieting'
- more objective, but equally revealing;
more analytical, but no less involving;
more intimate, but almost as dramatic
as the original.
Although the arrangement
as a whole was jointly engineered by
three of Schönberg's then-students,
the first and third movements were largely
Eisler's work, whereas Stein worked
on the Adagio and Rankl the finale.
There are no discernible fingerprints
which we can attach to any of these.
In fact, working as they did in evident
haste, they seem all to have adopted
a common method of retaining orchestral
string parts from the original score
without significant alteration, with
the clarinet taking the wind solos,
the horn the brass, and the piano and
harmonium being used where harmonic
weight is required, for example in tuttis
or wind and brass chords. To a large
extent, therefore, these are arrangements
of convenience, not great artistry.
What you most lose
is the sheer weight and range of orchestral
tone colour. Bruckner's string tremolandi
are crudely exposed on individual instruments,
the great outbursts of brass instruments
(in the scherzo, for example) lack impact,
and the solemn harmonic voice of the
great Adagio is - frankly - belittled
by such a diversity of solo lines.
Advantages? Hey, don't
rule these out! The intimacy of a small
ensemble such as this is a very effective
means of highlighting contrapuntal dialogue,
and introducing light and shade into
Bruckner's massive - sometimes dense
- tuttis. So detail emerges afresh
as if caught in a spotlight. In the
process, one is made more aware of the
historical links between the Second
Viennese School and its Schubert-Bruckner-Mahler
ancestry. 'Chamberised' Bruckner, as
here, connects well with the Mahler
of the Ninth and the Schönberg
of the Chamber Symphony. Listeners with
an ear for such musical 'family trees'
will find this arrangement especially
absorbing and illuminating.
The Thomas Christian
Ensemble are splendid salesmen. And
the MDG engineers serve them well. Worth
investigating!
Peter J Lawson
Erwin Stein and Karl Rankl 
