All the Bruckner symphonies… on an organ
UncategorizedPress release:
Over the past four years (2020-2024), German conductor and organist Hansjörg Albrecht has recorded Bruckner’s complete symphonic oeuvre as a transcription for organ for the first time worldwide.
This colossal project, entitled Anton Bruckner: Die Sinfonien, is under the patronage of Christian Thielemann and will find its crowning finale in mid-June with the release of a CD box set containing all the symphonies in the Bruckner organ cycle. The recordings took place at renowned concert venues and historic original locations with spectacular organs in Europe.
Alongside the respective symphony, each album also features a so-called Bruckner Window of the 21st century. Behind this are ten composition commissions that Hansjörg Albrecht has awarded to contemporary, internationally renowned composers with an affinity for Bruckner.
Very interesting, but I wonder why it’s a solo project, he could’ve transcribed for 4 hands, collaborate with another organist, worked with 2 assistants to re-set the registers, (for example, what they do at Saint-Sulpice), for a fuller and richer Bruckner, which all begs the question, if Bruckner meant his symphonies to be heard on an organ, wouldn’t he have transcribed and performed them himself (or did he)?
He also recorded very interesting trascrption of Wagner Ring and othe orchestral music
A remarkable video, many thanks. Bruckner had an audience of 71 000 when he played Westminster and Royal Albert organs in 1871, I wonder how many today, 7 100? How times have changed.
This sounds like a very interesting venture. Somewhere in my CD archives I’ve got a recording of Lionel Rogg playing Bruckner 8 in a transcription for Organ, but this seems to have been a labour of love to have recorded all of Bruckner’s Symphonies on Organ. I have so many complete sets of Bruckner Symphonies, I’ll probably check these out at some point. Thanks for the tip off.
Why don’t you try “Fiori musicale” (Frescobaldi) first? After all, that’s real organ music!
thanks for posting this video. i found it totally absorbing.
This novelty may be one for organ lovers but, although I am certainly a Bruckner fan, it does not tempt me.
Bruckner was a fine organist – of that there is no doubt. He came to London and gave a series of organ recitals at the Albert Hall and Crystal Palace.
When organist composers write for orchestra, they often seem to be imitating their instrument; they treat groups of instruments as ‘stops’ – one can hear when the timbre of the orchestral sound changes abruptly, as with an organ when various stops are opened and closed. To my ears, this is certainly the case with Cesar Franck’s symphony and Bruckner’s later symphonies too.
And yet – Bruckner the symphonist was still writing for orchestra and I think transcriptions for organ would rob the symphonies of the unique tone colours that he used so effectively. It’s also worth mentioning that despite Bruckner’s mastery of the organ, he wrote only five authenticated works for the instrument – all very short.
Finally, I find that organ recordings don’t quite deliver the full might of the instrument when played at home in one’s sitting room, even using the best quality hi-fi equipment. That might be adequate for dainty little instruments that Handel, Haydn or Mozart might have encountered, but not for the Victorian leviathans that make the earth move under your feet. For them, there’s no substitute for being enveloped in the acoustic of the hall, church or cathedral, where the bass notes can rattle your intestines!
Two questions :
-why?
-who cares?
I recall reading that Bruckner demoed the finale of his ninth symphony on the organ for a colleague.
So, a full beginning-to-end version of it did exist in some fashion.
It wouldn’t be for me, but what a nice treat for organ enthusiasts, who are also not allergic to Bruckner’s big symphonies. Maybe someone should try their hand at Bruckner Organ and Orchestra hybrids, or Bruckner symphonies with organ obbligato parts (?)
Can he play all Mahler symphonies? I think there’s a bigger market for Mahler than Bruckner.
Mahler’s orchestrations are an integral part of what is being expressed, musically, so I don’t think organ transcriptions would really illuminate anything.
I look forward to reading about the transcriptions and the newly commissioned pieces, once the album is out; depending on what I read (and from whom), I might take the plunge and acquire the set.
This is quite appropriate as Bruckner was himself an organist I believe and composed many works for organ
Yes, he was an organist, but no – he did not compose many works for organ. There are only five of them, each lasting two or three minutes.
This continues to beg the question way is there any music but organ music?
I any set of symphonies is worth transcribing to organ it’s Bruckner’s. It will be interesting to hear how some of the knotty counterpoint will be dealt with. I’ll miss the cymbal crash in 8. And next year we can look forward to the Carragan revisions!
Carragan did a marvelous job with No.2 — definitive, I would say — but Haas’s hybrid for No.8 will never be bettered.
Reverse engineering?
I bought them all in Leipzig back in March….really spectacular!!!!! Includes many other works–not just the Symphonies!
Makes sense as Bruckner only heard one movement of his symphonies read because a rich friend paid for the reading. He composed them all on organ. Every single time I play Bruckner I dedicated to him and Heaven because he’s never gotten the ability to hear them being played♡
Actually a lot of Bruckner symphonies sound very ‘organy’ in the glacial, cathedral-like harmonies. But I would not want to hear the whole thing on the organ.
FWIW, there’s an organ transcription of Beethoven Ninth on youtube. It sounds horrid.
IMO organ music sound best in small doses, not symphonic lengths.