Bruckner's passion for the organ was kindled at a very early stage, and took him as an organist to St. Florian, Linz and Vienna, and on tours as far as Paris and London. It therfore seems rather paradoxical that the „queen of instruments“ played such a negligible part in his compositional output.
It is a fact that Bruckner, who always preferred to play „freely, without music“, did not publish a single organ composition in his lifetime. For this reason the few works which have survived rank as rare jewels, as star organist Cameron Carpenter demonstrates, and he does not miss the chance – on the basis of Bruckner's only surviving improvisation sketch – to play „freely, without music“ himself.
While Beethoven's revolutionary 1st Symphony, whose dissonant opening seventh chord seemed scandalous to his contemporaries, was the bold starting signal for the „century of the symphony“, the 8th Symphony, often by contrast thought of as a „classical“ work, has a special connection to the city where it will be performed. It can be regarded as Beethoven's own „Linz symphony“, since the score was begun in the Upper Austrian capital and bears the words: „Symphony Lintz in the month of October 1812“.
Anton Bruckner (1824–1896)
Andante (foreplay) in d minor for organ, WAB 126, No. 2 (between 1843 and 1846)
Nachspiel d minor for organ, WAB 126, No. 1 (between 1843 and 1846)
Foreplay and Fugue in c minor for Organ, WAB 131 (1847)
Fugue d minor for organ, WAB 125 (1861)
Prelude ("Perger Prelude") C major for organ, WAB 129 (1884)
Improvisation on the Adagio in B major for Organ [Sketch for III.Movement of Symphony No. 9], WAB 109 (before 1890)
Prelude in E flat major, Andante in E flat major and Allegro in D major for organ, WAB 127, No. 1-3 (between 1835 and 1837)
Four Preludes in E flat major for organ, WAB 128, No. 1-4 (between 1835 and 1837)
Improvisation based on the "Improvisation sketch Ischl", WAB 240 (1890)
– Break –
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21 (1799–1800)
Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93 (1812–13)
Cameron Carpenter | Organ
Bruckner Orchester Linz
Markus Poschner | Conductor
