Anton Bruckner

In this concert programme, the Ensemble VocalArt Brixen dedicates itself to Anton Bruckner (* 1824 in Ansfelden, Upper Austria; † 1896 in Vienna), who set new standards with his compositions for a cappella choir and created a series of motets that are still considered icons of choral music today. In the middle of the 19th century, a far-reaching reform movement emerged in church music with the Cecilian movement, originating in Regensburg, in order to put an end to Viennese Classicism, which was considered too operatic. In the spirit of a misunderstood and greatly simplified vocal polyphony after Palestrina, attempts were made to impose an overly bigoted character on Musica Sacra, but this ran the risk of condemning musically high-quality literature or putting a permanent stop to its new creation. Bruckner understood these dynamics and attempted to counteract them by developing a style that was both in tune with the times, but also genuinely "ecclesiastical" in a certain sense, and which was at least not intended to contradict the strict Cecilianists a priori. With the echoes of 16th century polyphony and the choice of unaccompanied choral singing, which until then had been the exception rather than the rule, the composer achieved a simple but solemn grandeur, which he certainly knew how to heighten to monumental proportions using the tone-painting devices of high and late Romanticism. Bruckner composed his "Os justi" as a reaction to ultra-chromatic choral music by Giuseppe Verdi, for example: entirely in the Lydian church key (F major without a predetermined B flat), he dispenses with additional accidentals, diminished chords or alterations throughout the piece, thus proving that expressive music can be created with seemingly simple means. In this programme, between the large motets, we hear some rarely heard, smaller-structured works from Bruckner's early years, which attempt to trace the composer's development in a multi-dimensional way. In the middle of the programme, you can hear an organ work by César Franck, who has one thing in common with Bruckner besides his age, namely his openness to the groundbreaking compositional innovations of Richard Wagner. At times, this led to a veritable war of positions between "Brucknerians" and "Brahmsians" among the musicians of Vienna. Amidst all these influences, Bruckner succeeded in developing an unmistakable style in the field of tension between time-honoured vocal polyphony, Austrian local colour (Viennese Classicism) and late Romantic symphonic music.