Bruckner 3 - Version 1877 Philharmonie Festiva & Gerd Schaller

• Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896): I. Gemäßigt, mehr bewegt, misterioso:
• 1 Bruckner: I. Gemäßigt, mehr bewegt, misterioso 18:07
• II. Andante. Bewegt, feierlich, quasi Adagio:
• 2 Bruckner: II. Andante. Bewegt, feierlich, quasi Adagio 12:56
• III. Scherzo. Ziemlich schnell – Trio.:
• 3 Bruckner: III. Scherzo. Ziemlich schnell – Trio. 07:42
• IV. Finale. Allegro:
• 4 Bruckner: IV. Finale. Allegro 15:34
• Total Runtime 54:19

Info for Bruckner 3 - Version 1877

Despite all the warnings from the prophets of doom, Bruckner’s music has thankfully prevailed. Bruckner was always in search of the ideal structure for his symphonies. Dissatisfaction and perfectionism both caused him anguish and served as motivation in his determination to advance on an artistic level. His goal was to compose absolute music in the spirit of Beethoven. It is his Third Symphony, above all, “in which the trumpet introduces the theme,” that encapsulates this striving for absolute music – music that is timeless and continues to touch people’s hearts.

Following the recording of the 1874 and 1890 versions, we can now look forward to another Bruckner album with the Philharmonie Festiva. The 1877 version is characterised by the fact that Bruckner radically intervened in the form and orchestration of the symphony and created an almost compact work that combines the impetuous side of the first version with the serenity of the final form. The first movement opens splendidly, the poetic Adagio is marvellous, the Scherzo is playful and the finale flows powerfully. With the 1877 version in particular, Bruckner has created a very special, highly varied and extremely sonorous work.

In addition to the former Cistercian church in Ebrach, the Max Littmann Hall in the Regentenbau in Bad Kissingen is the second recording venue for the BRUCKNER2024 project. This hall is particularly suitable for the performance and recording of Anton Bruckner's early and middle symphonies. The recordings of the Study Symphony, the First Symphony in the so-called Vienna version, the early D minor Symphony of 1869, the Fourth with the so-called Volksfest Finale and now also the Third in the version of 1877 have already been made there.

Philharmonie Festiva
Gerd Schaller, conductor

Gerd Schaller
He is considered to be one of the most important Bruckner interpreters of our times: Gerd Schaller has been working as a freelance artist since 2006 – after completing a degree in conducting and holding positionas at various German opera houses. He is frequently invited by many well-known orchestras in Germany and abroad as a guest conductor.

In addition, in 2008 he founded the Philharmonie Festiva, a symphony orchestra with selected musicians of German top orchestras, with whom he is pursuing his own ambitious projects.

For years, Gerd Schaller's work has focused on the music of Anton Bruckner, whose combination of deep emotionality and extreme complexity had fascinated the conductor since his earliest youth already. This fascination also results in Schaller's large-scale project Bruckner2024, with the aim of capturing all of Bruckner's essential works on CD in a personal perspective until the composer‘s 200th anniversary in 2024. The project started with the symphonies, which Schaller has now all recorded on CD with the Philharmonie Festiva on the label Profil Günter Hänssler, some of them in previously unknown versions. This series has been awarded numerous prizes at home and abroad. One of the highlights was certainly the recording with Schaller‘s completion of the final movement of the 9th Symphony after the composer's sketches, which also was published as a score in 2018.

This symphonic Bruckner cycle was supplemented in the meantime by the recording of some of Bruckner's sacred works, such as the F Minor Mass or the 146th Psalm, as well as the complete organ works, interpreted by Schaller himself on a historical instrument.

In addition to Bruckner's works, the conductor, with his pronounced thirst for knowledge and his constant interest in the new and unknown, is very enthusiastic about the rediscovery of forgotten works and rarities of the repertoire, such as Carl Goldmark's opera Merlin, whose modern premiere he conducted and whose score he recently edited for the publisher Ries & Erler. Furthermore, on the field of opera Gerd Schaller made himself an excellent name with the works of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss and Giuseppe Verdi, but his broad range of repertoire also includes composers less frequently performed, from Alban Berg to Francesco Cileas. Also for the concert stage Schaller has developed an enormous repertoire encompassing music from the Baroque to the present day.

In addition, the conductor is the artistic director of the Ebracher Musiksommer, a festival he founded in 1990 and which, in recent years, received more and more international attention thanks to Schaller's well-founded Bruckner interpretations in the ideal acoustics of the Abbey Church in Ebrach.

Booklet for Bruckner 3 - Version 1877