(++++) ADMIRABLE CONTINUATIONS

Bruckner: Symphony No. 8, 1890 version, transcribed for organ by Eberhard Klotz; Fanfare “Ecce sacerdos magnus” | Motet WAB 13, transcribed for organ by Hansjörg Albrecht; Thomas Daniel Schlee: “In Nomine” | Window on Bruckner’s 8^th Symphony. Hansjörg Albrecht, organ. Oehms. $23.99 (2 CDs).

Heinrich Marschner: Overtures and Stage Music, Volume 2. Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dario Salvi. Naxos. $13.99.

     It is a fair bet that 2024, the bicentennial of Bruckner’s birth, will be less fraught with worldwide dislocation and near-panic than the 250^th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, for which celebrations and acknowledgments were largely derailed by the depredations of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bruckner bicentennial will surely include trouble spots and doom-laden predictions aplenty, those being a feature of every year – but one can at least hope that no worldwide catastrophe akin to the pandemic of 2020 will undermine the many plans to honor Bruckner. A great number of those plans have been in the making for years, including the quixotic but fascinating releases on Oehms of organ transcriptions of Bruckner’s symphonies, performed with tremendous stylistic attentiveness by Hansjörg Albrecht. The latest of them, featuring the monumental Eighth Symphony that was Bruckner’s final completed work in the form, is in fact climactic in its expansiveness and its confirmation that these recordings, although perhaps objectively wrong-headed, can and do shed enormous light on the “Bruckner sound” and the ability of the organ to elucidate elements of the symphonies that do not always come through with equal clarity when the works are played, as intended, by an orchestra. Like other recordings in this fascinating series, this one includes a couple of musical appetizers before getting to the symphonic main course. The first is Albrecht’s own organ transcription of Bruckner’s Fanfare “Ecce sacerdos magnus” | Motet WAB 13, originally written for choir, three trombones and organ – a very interesting work in its own right, and one whose solemnity and sense of anticipation translate well to the organ in Albrecht’s version. Next is the latest “Bruckner Window”: these symphonies-on-the-organ CDs all feature contemporary composers’ tributes to or musical comments on Bruckner. The one by Thomas Daniel Schlee (born 1957) is extended – 12 minutes long – and structurally ties interestingly to the finale of Bruckner’s Eighth in its rhythms and counterpoint. It is more a fantasy on the symphony than an introduction to it, but it serves effectively as a modern commentary on some elements of Bruckner’s music. And then Albrecht begins a very broadly conceived, spacious and elegant performance of the symphony itself, stretching the work out to a full 92 minutes – one of the longest modern recordings of this symphony. Yet if the pacing is deliberate, it is never plodding: Albrecht has clearly thought in considerable depth about the intricacies of this score, and Eberhard Klotz’s transcription does a truly excellent job of highlighting not only the main thematic groups but also the middle voices and subsidiary elements. In fact, although it might seem that performing this symphony on a single instrument, even a grand single instrument, would significantly compromise Bruckner’s sense of orchestral coloration and his attentiveness to detail within the work’s very broad canvas. Surprisingly, though, the combination of Klotz’s work and Albrecht’s performance produces a feeling of sonic balance among sections (thanks to Albrecht’s highly skillful selection of registrations); and while combinations of and contrasts among strings, winds and brass are inevitably missing, the overall sound world of the symphony comes through with considerable clarity. Klotz arranged the second (1890) version of the symphony, which has tended to fall out of favor in recent years as more conductors have gravitated to the original version of 1887. Given the inauthenticity of any organ transcription of a Bruckner symphony, this is less important than it might otherwise be: what matters here is that Albrecht fully explores the sprawling majesty of the work – the 32-minute Adagio is simply outstanding – and that Klotz shows great understanding of Bruckner’s music and, as a result, creates a transcription that, strictly on its own terms (which are not exactly Bruckner’s), is highly convincing.

     Dario Salvi’s exploration of the stage music of Heinrich August Marschner (1795-1861) has many points of interest as well, but the second volume in this Naxos series is a (+++) release simply because – like the first disc led by Salvi – the music itself is of less interest and less consequence than the conceptualization of a series highlighting it. Marschner was the most important German opera composer between Weber and Wagner, and a significant influence on the latter, whose first opera, Die Feen, is essentially Wagner’s “take” on the Marschner operatic world. Marschner’s use of melodrama, his creation of powerful antiheroic central characters, his expansion of the lower range of the orchestra, and his development of supernatural protagonists with mortal failings, all influenced Wagner to a considerable degree; and two Marschner operas – Der Vampyr and Hans Heiling – remain impressive in their own right. But Salvi’s main interest in this recording, as in the previous one, is to unearth Marschner works that are thoroughly unfamiliar: everything in Volume 2 is a world première recording. Everything is also, unfortunately, rather prosaic, more so than the best of Marschner’s stage music. The four works represented on this CD cover a 30-year period: Prinz Friedrich von Homburg dates to 1821, Klänge aus Osten to 1842, Kaiser Adolph von Nassau to 1845, and Austin to 1850-51. The specific selections heard here are nicely enough played by the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra (although the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, used for the prior CD, is a somewhat more-polished ensemble); but there simply is not much musical meat to these small selections. From Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, for example, Salvi offers the four entr’actes and the concluding Schluss Symphonie, while the more-extended pieces from Kaiser Adolph von Nassau and Austin are ballets that are scarcely germane to the works’ action or their primary focuses. The most-interesting piece here is the overture to Klänge aus Osten – the only music Salvi offers from that work, which is a dramatic cantata rather than an opera. Occasional hints of Marschner’s innovations do appear in some of the pieces here: for instance, his use of and contrast between lower strings and brass is a recurrent element that produces some effective moments. As a whole, though, the music heard on this release is rather thin gruel – interesting because it has not previously been recorded, but in no way indicative of the importance of Marschner as a composer for the stage and an influence on Wagner and others. Hopefully there will be more-interesting Marschner to come as this series progresses.