Missa solemnis (Bruckner)

History#

Bruckner composed the Missa solemnis in 1854 for the installation of Friedrich Mayer as abbot of St. Florian Monastery. The Missa solemnis was performed during the installation of Friedrich Mayer on 14 September 1854. After Robert Führer saw the score, he suggested Bruckner study with Simon Sechter, and after seeing the mass, Sechter accepted Bruckner as a pupil. With the possible exception of Psalm 146, the Missa solemnis was the last major work Bruckner wrote before concluding his studies with Sechter, who did not allow his students to compose freely while studying with him. A second performance of the Missa solemnis occurred two years after Bruckner’s death, on 4 May 1898 (feast day of Saint Florian), in the St. Florian Abbey under the baton of choir director Berhard Deubler. On 29 March 1921, the Missa solemnis was performed again by August Göllerich during the seventh concert of the Linzer Bruckner-Stiftung.

Setting#

Bruckner composed the Missa solemnis, WAB 29, as a setting of the mass ordinary for vocal soloists (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), mixed choir, orchestra (2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, alto, tenor and bass trombones, timpani, and strings) and organ. Stylistically the mass, in the line of Beethoven’s orchestral masses, displays Bruckner’s confrontation with tradition. In spite of many beautiful details, multiple influences afford the work some heterogeneity in which J. S. Bach’s technique of the fugue is “amalgamated” with elements of the Viennese Classical and Preclassical periods, and of the early Romantic (Schubert). The Quoniam quotes from Joseph Haydn’s Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offida. As in Bruckner’s later great masses, the setting of the words Et resurrexit is preceded by the “old-fashioned rhetorical gesture” of a “rising chromatic figure in stile agitato representing the trembling of the earth”. This rising chromatic figure is repeated before the Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Several passages of the Missa solemnis, particularly the Qui tollis of the Gloria and the central part of the Credo, prefigure Bruckner’s next Mass No. 1 in D minor. Both the Gloria and the Credo conclude with a fugue. Robert Simpson finds “nothing mediocre or tentative about this strong and clear work … the music is often of excellent quality … the work, though not perfect, is admirable.”

Editions#

The edition by Robert Haas for the Gesamtausgabe was based on the copy given to Mayer. During the 1930s Ferdinand Habel changed the text of bars 28–38 of the Kyrie and bars 57–58 of the Gloria to make the work more usable for Eucharist celebration. Leopold Nowak rejected these changes in his edition, which also introduced phrasing marks in some violin parts that had not been available to Haas. was premiered by Łukasz Borowicz with the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

Discography#

There are five commercial recordings of the work. The three earlier recordings follow the Haas edition with Habel’s text adaptations. Rickenbacker follows the Nowak edition. According to Hans Roelofs, Hausmann’s recording (1983) is a remarkable achievement for a non-professional choir. Rickenbacher delivers a recording with excellent sound, Jürgens always seems to be aware of the fact that he is performing a mass in which praise and humility complement each other − Both on a high musical level. * Hubert Gunther, Bruckner - Missa Solemnis in B, Rheinische Singgemeinschaft and BRT-Radio Symfonieorkest – LP: Garnet G 40 170, * Elmar Hausmann, Anton Bruckner – Missa solemnis in B, Motetten, Chorus and orchestra, Basilica of the Holy Apostles, Cologne – LP: Aulos AUL 53569, 1983 * Jürgen Jürgens, Anton Bruckner – Music of the St. Florian Period, Monteverdi-Chor and Israel Chamber Orchestra – LP: Jerusalem Records ATD 8503, 1984 (Bruckner Archive Production). Transferred to CD BSVD-0109, 2011 * Karl Anton Rickenbacher, Bruckner - Missa Solemnis, Psalm 112 & Psalm 150, Chorus and orchestra Bamberg Symphony – CD: Virgin Classics VC 7 91481, 1990 * Łukasz Borowicz, RIAS Kammerchor, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Raphael Alpermann (Organ), Anton Bruckner – Missa solemnis – CD: Accentus ACC 30429, 2017 (Cohrs edition, 2017)

Sources#

• Anton Bruckner, Sämtliche Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe – Band 15: Requiem d-Moll – Missa solemnis b-Moll, Dr. Benno Filsen Verlag GmbH, Robert Haas (Editor), Augsburg-Vienna, 1930
• Anton Bruckner: Sämtliche Werke: Band XV: Missa Solemnis in B (1854), Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Leopold Nowak (Editor), Vienna, 1975

Further reading#

• Hans-Hubert Schönzeler, Bruckner, Marion Boyars, London, 1978

External links#

• Missa solemnis b-Moll, WAB 29 Critical discography by Hans Roelofs
• Live performances:
• , Karlskirche Vienna, 2014: , without Credo, with Ave Maria, WAB 5
• Ricardo Alejandro Luna, Santuario di San Francesco d´Assisi di Terni, 2015:
• with the Cantores Carmeli, 1 November 2019: