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Review by JJ November 15, 2008 (4 of 5 found this review helpful)
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All of Bruckner’s music seems to lead to God, the inspirer, the protector of dark hours, to whom the master of Saint Florian dedicated his last unfinished symphony. Symphonic music that is purely romantic and powerful, rooted in its era, it paradoxically does not seem to echo his sacred music, which is of another time and age, embracing numerous formal currents all at once. Ernst Kurth, Bruckner’s biographer, writes: “In Bruckner one notes this basic feeling which put its stamp on the old French mass, as well as on the Dutch mass, on the reform of church music undertaken by Palestrina, on the Roman and Venetian School, on all the transformations sustained by Italian and German church music with instrumental accompaniment since the Renaissance and the Austrian baroque era until the classical; and it is this feeling which allowed him to compare himself, insofar as form, to classic models all the while reconciling the religious spirit of the long past to the romantic spirit. Bruckner’s real historic place, this desire which, starting from medieval mysticism, elevated him to the summits of romantic susceptibility, is nowhere better found than in his church music… .” The present recording proposes his Mass N°2 in E minor in its 1882 revised form, as well as the Motets. Marcus Creed, who has also recorded extraordinary versions of Brahms’ choral works, once again delights us. The perfect tonal balance the Vokalensemble of Stuttgart radiates is a marvel at every moment. Bruckner’s sacred music thereby seems eternal. Here is a Super Audio CD of rare musical pertinence: a summit.
Jean-Jacques Millo
Translation Lawrence Schulman
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