RUDOLF INNIG

Anton Bruckner

March d-Minor (WAB 96) – Three Orchestral Pieces (WAB 96+97) – Overture g-Minor (WAB 98)

During his work as organist at the cathedral in Linz (1855-1868), Anton Bruckner met the ten-year-younger theater conductor Otto Kitzler (1834-1915), who gave him the decisive inspiration for composing symphonic orchestral works between December 1861 and July 1863...

The orchestral pieces presented here as an organ transcription and the Overture in G minor (WAB 96 to 98) are Anton Bruckner's earliest compositions for symphonic orchestra. They were written between October 1862 and January 1863 at the end of his studies with Otto Kitzler in free composition1, which had begun in late autumn 1861 with simple exercises in form theory and ended with the composition of his first symphony in F minor (WAB 99) in the summer of 1863.

The March in D minor (WAB 96) and the Three Orchestral Pieces (WAB 97) are based on Bruckner's first short pieces in his study book, in which he had become acquainted with the 'three-part song form' as a way of extending periods: they are short symphonic character pieces without any internal connection.

The Overture in G minor, his first extended sonata movement, provides further revealing insights into Bruckner's characteristic symphonic form principles: although it is based on the traditional sonata form (Bruckner's expression in his study book), which he had become acquainted with through Otto Kitzler, primarily on the basis of the composition theory of Johann Christian Lobe2 (here also with a slow introduction subsequently created on his advice), the sonata movement of the already 38-year-old composer deviates from this and is aimed primarily at the end of the piece, where the main theme surprisingly appears in a new sound form.

(Dr. Ruolf Innig)

Anton Bruckner - Sinfonie c-Moll Nr. 1 (WAB 101)

(app. 100 pages, 30 €)

Anton Bruckner did not work on any other symphony for longer or more intensively than on the Symphony in C minor No. 1. Although he began sketching a new symphony ('Linz version') soon after the positive response to the performance of his Mass in D minor in November 1864 in Linz and based on suggestions from his sponsor Moritz von Mayfeld in early 1865, he was only able to finish it 16 months later, in April 1866. In contrast, he composed his first four-movement Symphony in F minor, with which his studies with the Linz theater conductor Otto Kitzler culminated in July 1863, in just five months.

"With the 'cheeky broom' I didn't care about a cat, about criticism or an audience, I composed as I liked, not to please people"..., is how Bruckner later expressed himself about his Symphony in C minor No. 1. His cheeky broom not only frightened the audience in the provincial capital Linz in 1868, even 23 years later the second performance on December 13, 1891 in Vienna by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra did not receive enthusiastic approval.

Brahms biographer Max Kalbeck began his review with the sentence: In Anton Bruckner's first symphony everything is inspiration and almost nothing is work. How beautifully the work begins and how nasty it ends! At the end of the Bruckner year 2024, the Symphony in C minor No. 1 is, astonishingly, still the least performed of his symphonies.

(Dr. Rudolf Innig)

Anton Bruckner - Sinfonie d-Moll Nr. 1 (WAB 100)

 (app. 90 pages, 30 €)

Anton Bruckner's Symphony in D minor is of course not his 'zero', even if this nonsensical use of language can still be found in the title of the score of the Bruckner Complete Edition and in current publications in 2024. However, there has been clarity about the dates of composition of this symphony in 1869 since the early 20th century.

The confusion arose from Bruckner's remark on the title page of the autograph and the transcript that the symphony was invalid, supplemented by the cancellation sign Ø. This was later misunderstood as 'zero', an error that continued in the four-volume Bruckner biography by August Göllerich/Max Auer (1931-35) and the score of the Complete Edition (1968) up to the present day. It is therefore not surprising that the Symphony in D minor was first performed in 1924 on the occasion of Anton Bruckner's 100th birthday and even today - 100 years later - is rarely on the repertoire of international orchestras.

In a very unusual decision, Anton Bruckner declared the autograph of his four-movement symphony and its two copies (each about 200 handwritten pages) invalid and 'only an attempt'. What prompted him to take this step, which was unique in the history of 19th century music, only becomes understandable when one takes a closer look at his personal situation around 1868...

In the symphony, structural differences can be seen in movements two and four compared to the other two movements, which suggest that Bruckner drew on movements he had already composed previously. They probably did not originate in 1869, at least in the form of sketches, but before the Symphony in C minor No. 1, composed in 1865/66.

While several sketches and fragments of the Symphony in C minor No. 1 have been preserved, these drafts, which are so characteristic of Bruckner's working method, are missing from the Symphony in D minor...

(Dr. Rudolf Innig)

Anton Bruckner - Sinfonie f-Moll (WAB 99)

 (app. 80 pages, 30 €)

Unlike today, Anton Bruckner was known in his time not as a symphonist, but primarily as an organist. At the age of 21 (1845) he was appointed organist at the Augustinian monastery in St. Florian, where he had previously been accepted as a choirboy after the early death of his father in 1837. In 1855 he became organist at the cathedral in Linz and finally in 1869 with the title of 'k.u.k. court organist' in Vienna. In December 1861 Bruckner began further studies in free composition with the Linz theater conductor Otto Kitzler, who was 10 years younger than him, which gave him the decisive impulses for composing symphonic orchestral works.

The Kitzler study book, published in 2014, traces this development on 326 pages with handwritten exercises, sketches and compositions by Bruckner. At the beginning (based on the composition and form theories of E. F. Richter, J. Chr. Lobe and A. B. Marx) there were exercises in period structure and the two- or three-part song form. This was followed by song compositions, sets of variations, a piano sonata, a string quartet and studies on instrumentation based on Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C minor op. 13.

The two-year lessons with his friend Kitzler ended in the spring of 1863 with Bruckner's first symphonic works, the orchestral pieces (WAB 96 and 97), the overture in G minor (WAB 98) and the symphony in F minor (WAB 99).

Here are the first pages of the Symphony in F minor in my transcription for organ.

For further information:

Rudolf Innig: Anton Bruckners Weg zum Symphoniker, Bielefeld 2023 (https://vpe-web.de)

Anton Bruckner Four Orchestral Pieces (WAB 96+97) and Overture g-Minor (WAB 98)

During his time as organist at the cathedral in Linz (1855-1868), Anton Bruckner met the ten-year-younger theater conductor Otto Kitzler (1834-1915), who gave him the decisive inspiration for composing symphonic orchestral works between December 1861 and July 1863...

The March in D minor (WAB 96) and the Three Orchestral Pieces (WAB 97) presented here as an organ transcription and the Overture in G minor (WAB 96 to 98) are Anton Bruckner's earliest compositions for symphonic orchestra. They were written between October 1862 and January 1863 at the end of his studies with Otto Kitzler in free composition, which had begun in late autumn 1861 with simple exercises in form theory and ended with the composition of his first symphony in F minor (WAB 99) in the summer of 1863.

The March in D minor (WAB 96) and the Three Orchestral Pieces (WAB 97) are based on the first short pieces in the study book, in which Bruckner had become acquainted with the 'three-part song form' as a way of extending periods: they are short symphonic character pieces without any internal connection.

 The Overture in G minor, his first extended sonata movement, provides further insightful insights into Bruckner's characteristic symphonic form principles: Although it is based on the traditional sonata form (Bruckner's expression in his study book), which he had learned from Otto Kitzler, primarily on the basis of Johann Christian Lobe's composition theory (here also with a slow introduction created subsequently on his advice), the sonata movement of the 38-year-old composer deviates from this and is aimed primarily at the end of the piece, where the main theme surprisingly appears in a new sound form...

The orchestral works by Anton Bruckner presented here as organ pieces are excellently suited to being performed on the organ, but Bruckner deliberately wrote them for the 'even larger instrument', the symphonic orchestra: after his six-year 'distance learning' in harmony and counterpoint with Simon Sechter in Vienna, his musical ideas had already become too complex to be expressed on the organ.

(Dr. Rudolf Innig)