Rare Bruckner psalm setting brought to light and given a stunning performance with Mass no. 3 by Munich Philharmonic Choir, Philharmonia Festive at Ebrach's 25th jubilee concert.
Bruckner’s Sixth is one of his most genial symphonies and might be considered to inhabit a world not too distant from the symphonies of Schubert, Dvořák and even Beethoven’s Pastoral. Not only are its many melodies immediately appealing, but it is also, in the words of the composer, his “cheekiest” (“die Kechste”).
The Abbey at Ebrach in Germany has all the advantages and disadvantages one might expect of a large ecclesiastical building as a venue for a Bruckner performance and, as far the sound goes, they are summed up in one word: reverberation.
When you begin to get to know the symphonies of Anton Bruckner it’s not long before you come up against “the Bruckner problem”: the fact that there are multiple versions of many of the works, some of which originate from the composer himself who went through periods of revision-mania, while others are the results of collaborations with his supporters, and some were done without the composer
The Ebrach Summer of Music, Bruckner Festival is an extraordinary event. Ebrach is a small town, with a couple of shops, a café, an inn and a hotel, a disused railway line, a mere 1,000 occupants - and a gigantic Abbey attached to a monastery that was closed in 1803 and whose buildings now serve as a prison! At weekends, as you gather outside the Abbey before the forthcoming concert, the discon
