Search - Bruckner, Bernius, Stuttgart Chamber Choir :: Bruckner: Mass in E Minor/Ave Maria/Christus Factus Est/Locus Iste/Virga Jesse

Neglected Masterpiece

Launio Rafaele Kaleva | Helsinki,Finland | 03/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This perfomance of Bruckner's Mass in E minor is one of the greatest choral cd's i own. I find myself returning to it again and again. The work itself is almost criminally left to the shadow of great Mass no.3. It is pure, absolute brilliance. It has a beauty beyond words, and Bernius here gives a perfomance of a lifetime. I find it incredible that there's only few recording of Mass No.2, but dozens and dozens of Mass No.3. This is hidden somewhere under much lesser works, and i tell you, you find a treasure if you ever by any chance happen to stumble on it. Cannot recommend it more highly, a shattering masterpiece!"

How does something as wonderful as this go out of print?

Larry VanDeSande | Mason, Michigan United States | 03/28/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Considering the erstwhile recordings of Bruckner's motets and masses by Eugen Jochum on DG have stayed in print continuously since they were pressed, the answer to my question posed above becomes even more elusive. This recording, by Frieder Bernius, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, and the German Wind Players, is the best recording of these oft-recorded motets and mass by Bruckner I have ever heard.



What makes this better than the masterful recordings of the Mass No. 2 in E minor that exist by Jochum, Helmut Rilling and Marcus Creed -- the latter is soupy super audio sound -- is a couple things. First, the recording is more liturgical and, therefore, more suitable to the music. While Creed conducts it like it's a British church service, Rilling conducts like he's in a concert hall, and Jochum comes closest to Bernius, this recording carries with it religious weight the others don't comprehend. This is achieved, in part, by marginally slower tempi. It is also achieved by motion between pianissiomo and fortissiomo that seems to expand greater than the other recordings.



Another big plus for this recording is the playing of the German woodwind band, whose instruments can, for a change, be heard throughout the recording. I guess because woodwinds have a relatively slight bandwidth they tend to homogenize when played in a group like that collected for this music. This is one of the few times I've ever heard individual playes stand out in the music. The playing is fine, of course, and the 1991 DDD sound captures it all perfectly well.



Frieder Bernius is a veteran choral and instrumental conductor that's been around more than 30 years. His oldest recording I have is a 1978 rendering of Haydn's Stabat Mater. He is still active and still making recordings. On the basis of this one and the few others I've heard from him, he should have a much higher international profile with music collectors. Anyone looking for a devotinal version of Bruckner's greatest mass, with some of his best motets thrown in for good measure, won't be disappointed by picking up this out of print recording that compares favorably to any ever recorded."