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BRUCKNER2024

New podcast on the Bruckner anniversary year with conductor and Bruckner expert Gerd Schaller

 On 4 September, Anton Bruckner's birthday, the international jubilee year commemorating the great romantic composer Anton Bruckner has been officially proclaimed in many places around the world.

A new German language podcast provides monthly coverage about the 200th anniversary of the great composer's birth in September 2024: Gerd Schaller talks about Bruckner's life and work, the latest events and developments in the anniversary year, which is now in full swing. The podcast is thus intended to cover an arc from the opening of the anniversary year in September 2023 to the grand "finale", the 200th birthday of the composer Anton Bruckner in September 2024, and is available on Spotify, Amazon music, YouTube, Apple Podcasts and google podcasts, among others, as well as on many other streaming platforms which offer podcasts.

Gerd Schaller has been performing all Bruckner symphonies in all available versions since 2011 in cooperation with Bayerischer Rundfunk as part of the "Ebracher Musiksommer" festival, of which he is the artistic director. He is the only conductor in the world to pursue this endeavour so consistently. He is also an ECHO award winner, recipient of the Bruckner Medal of Honor from the American Anton Bruckner Society and is considered one of the world's most sought-after experts on the subject. His Bruckner recordings are released worldwide by the Profil Edition Günter Hänssler label on CD, as download and in music streaming formats and are enthusiastically received and reviewed by the international music press.

If you are interested in Anton Bruckner and would like to use the anniversary year to find out more about the life and work of this important Romantic composer, the podcast BRUCKNER2024 is the ideal introduction. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel.: 05531-8144899


BRUCKNER2024-konzert

Bruckner concert at the Ebracher Musiksommer 2023

On August 20th, another Bruckner symphony will be performed in the Abbey Church of Ebrach! Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva will continue to further expand their Bruckner cycle with the late 1888 version of Anton Bruckner's Fourth Symphony, the "Romantic". Hardly any other symphony was more thoroughly reworked by the composer than his Fourth Symphony, which received substantial changes ever since the revolutionary first version in 1874. In addition to Anton Bruckner himself, the conductors Ferdinand Löwe and Franz and Josef Schalk were probably also involved in the late version of 1888, making changes to the musical text that are thought to be authorised by Bruckner at a later stage. Due to the extremely turbulent history of the 1888 version of the work, it is still performed far less frequently than the much more popular intermediate version of 1878. Visitors to the concert can thus experience a paradox, because on the one hand the Fourth is one of Bruckner's most popular symphonies with the public, and on the other hand the 1888 version is performed so rarely that one can speak of a musical rarity at the same time!
Tickets are available from:  

 
09552 5904 999 10
 
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Gerd-Schaller-Bruckner-Synphonien-5-Orgel

New album upcoming May, 5th!

On May 5th the Gerd Schaller’s new album will be released. After the great success of his arrangement of Anton Bruckner's ninth symphony for organ, which was even nominated for a Grammy Award in 2022, Gerd Schaller's new album picks up there again and offers a new organ arrangement of a popular Bruckner symphony.
This time it is the Fifth Symphony, which, according to Gerd Schaller's own words, is particularly well suited for an arrangement for the organ because it already contains a particularly large number of contrapuntal passages in the orchestral writing that are reminiscent of the sound of the organ.
The album, which, as usual, is published in high-quality edition by the label PROFIL Edition Günter Hänssler, can already be pre-ordered everywhere at retailers worldwide and can also be pre-ordered via the concert office of the Ebracher Musiksommer and obtained directly from there: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel.: +49 (0) 9552/5 90 49 99 10


Gerd-Schaller-bei-Spotify-verfuegbar

Spotify playlist "This is Gerd Schaller"

Digital music enjoyment no longer works only via CDs. In the age of music streaming, other forms of use have gained in importance. A younger audience in particular is using playlists from music streaming providers these days.
The streaming provider with the most users worldwide is Spotify. Now, Gerd Schaller's recordings are also available on Spotify as a playlist and can thus attract new listener groups.
The Spotify playlist "This is Gerd Schaller" comprises almost six hours of music and is regularly supplemented by new releases. By using the playlist, listeners not only get a cross-section of Gerd Schaller's catalog of recordings to date, but the goal is also to arouse curiosity about the full composition based on the selected excerpts.
The playlist is available for direct music listening at this link:


Kirchen-und-Kapellen-der-Pfarrei-Schluesselfeld

Gerd Schaller publishes an art history book

Since his youth, Gerd Schaller has been interested in the sacred buildings in his hometown of Schlüsselfeld. Now the conductor has also worked on art history and has written a book about these gems set in a dreamy landscape which was published by Vier-Türme-Verlag Münsterschwarzach.
Did you know, for example, that the Schlüsselfeld parish church houses a significant work of art with the high altar painting by Oswald Onghers – or that the Marienkapelle contains a true-to-the-original copy of the altar of grace in the famous pilgrimage town of Mariazell?
Gerd Schaller dives into the history of the churches and chapels in Schlüsselfeld and also publishes his research results on the so-called “Schlüsselfelder Altar”.
At the same time, the excellent photographs by the architectural photographer Uwe Gaasch make this book a wonderful illustrated book – a journey of discovery for those interested in art and for connoisseurs.

Gerd Schaller
Kirchen und Kapellen der Pfarrei Schlüsselfeld
Vier-Türme-Verlag Münsterschwarzach
ISBN 978-3-89680-613-0
157 pages, 22.5 x 28.5 cm, with numerous illustrations, high-quality edition with gold embossing and dust jacket
Price: 24,00 € plus shipping charges
Available in all bookstores

and at the Ebrach Summer Music Festival:
E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +49 9552 5904 999 10


Brahms_Symphony_No2_Gerd_Schaller_Philharmonie_Festiva-1

Another building block for BRUCKNER2024

With the Philharmonie Festiva, Gerd Schaller recorded Anton Bruckner's fourth symphony in the first version from 1873, which was published by Profil Edition Günter Hänssler. Ken Ward of The Bruckner Journal gives particular credit to this recording: “This excellent Philharmonie Festiva recording of the 1874 Fourth, a masterly interpretation under the baton of Gerd Schaller, provides a benchmark from which the true eloquence of Bruckner’s first version of his Romantic Symphony is given voice and reveals itself as a great work, worthy of standing at least as an equal beside the later more familiar versions of this symphony.”

Brahms_Symphony_No2_Gerd_Schaller_Philharmonie_Festiva-1

BRUCKNER2024 on the home stretch

As an interim result of the major project BRUCKNER2024, which began in 2011, Profil Edition Günter Hänssler has released a 20-CD box set containing the previous Bruckner recordings by Gerd Schaller with his Philharmonie Festiva. Dr Ingobert Waltenberger from the international culture platform "Online Merker" describes this publication as "the most important Bruckner edition since the publication of the Celibidache/Munich Philharmonic recordings".

Brahms_Symphony_No2_Gerd_Schaller_Philharmonie_Festiva-1

Gerd Schaller conducts Brahms

Profil Edition Hänssler has released the Second Symphony by Johannes Brahms with Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva.

Remy Franck writes: Gerd Schaller conducts Johannes Brahms’ Second Symphony in a healthy alternation of relaxation and powerful musical flow. …Throughout, Schaller allows the wonderful woodwinds and horns of the Philharmonie Festiva to flourish, giving the movement just the tension, the passion in the cantando that has sometimes been missed in other interpretations.

Guy Engesl notes: “Blue skies, trickling springs, sunshine and cool, green shadows,” wrote a Brahms friend about this second symphony. One senses much of this in Schaller’s interpretation, except that at no moment does it sound kitschy, dreary or sentimental.


Bruckners Neunte in der Orgelbearbeitung von Gerd Schaller

Bruckner's Ninth arranged for organ by Gerd Schaller

The organ is Bruckner's instrument, which stayed with him all his life. Bruckner was already celebrated by his contemporaries as a great organ soloist. So what could be more natural than to arrange his phantastic Ninth Symphony for the organ and thus reveal the essence of the work?!

Gerd Schaller had already supplemented and completed Bruckner's Ninth based on original sources. Now he has arranged the completed Ninth for organ and also recorded it himself on the main organ of the former Cistercian abbey church in Ebrach. The recording was made by the Bavarian Radio Studio Franken. The double CD has been published by Profil Edition Hänssler, the organ sheet music has been published by Musikverlag Ries & Erler, Berlin.

CDs and organ sheet music available at:
Ebracher Musiksommer
Phone: +49 9552 9319300
E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Bruckners Neunte in der Orgelbearbeitung von Gerd Schaller

Bruckners First in the Vienna version

After the Linz version, Gerd Schaller has recorded the so-called Vienna version of the first symphony of Anton Bruckner with the Philharmonie Festiva and continues to build on his major project BRUCKNER 2024.

Bruckner's quintet — arranged for large orchestra — is released on CD

Anton Bruckner's string quintet is one of the unknown works of the composer. Wrong, according to Gerd Schaller - who has now edited the piece for a large orchestra and recorded it on CD with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra.


Bruckner's Ninth:
Gerd Schaller's completion is released als score edition

Anton Bruckner's last, his Ninth Symphony, remained unfinished, for the composer died during the work on the 4th movement - to which, however, numerous sketches have been preserved. Gerd Schaller reviewed this material and recently presented his own complete set of this final movement, which was recorded in July 2018 with the Philharmonie Festiva on CD. The score has been published by Ries & Erler, Berlin.

weiterlesen
Zwar blieb Anton Bruckners Neunte Symphonie unvollendet, doch sind zum vierten, dem Finalsatz, von des Komponisten eigener Hand zahlreiche Skizzen und Partiturentwürfe in unterschiedlichen Kompositionsstadien erhalten. Auf Basis dieses Quellenmaterials, intensiver musikwissenschaftlicher Arbeit und seiner langjährigen Erfahrung als Bruckner-Interpret hat Gerd Schaller eine musikalisch in sich geschlossene Fassung des Finalsatzes vorgelegt.

Dafür unternahm er nach sorgfältiger Analyse Brucknerscher Kompositionstechniken eine Gesamtschau des überlieferten Materials, inklusive der bisher wenig beachteten frühen Skizzen und konnte auf dieser Grundlage eine Konzertfassung des vierten Satzes vorlegen, in der die fehlenden Passagen weitestgehend mit originalen Gedanken Bruckners gefüllt werden konnten. Die verbleibenden musikalischen Lücken wurden von Schaller selbst unter konsequenter und logischer Beibehaltung der Kompositionstechniken Anton Bruckners und unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Brucknerschen Spätstils ergänzt. Diese Fassung modifizierte Schaller nochmals und revidierte anschließend noch einige Details.

Der revidierten Partitur (120 S.) ist ein umfangreicher Textteil (87 S.) vorangestellt – zweisprachig in Deutsch und Englisch. Der Textteil umfasst ein Vorwort mit den Hintergründen und Motivationen für die vorliegende Arbeit, maßgebliche analytische Überlegungen, eine Darstellung des formalen Aufbaus des Finalsatzes, eine detaillierte Analyse mit zahlreichen musikalischen Beispielen und harmonischen Konzeptionen, eine Erörterung der relevanten Quellen sowie eine Auflistung der verwendeten Materialien. Letztere sind nochmals explizit an den entsprechenden Stellen in der Partitur kenntlich gemacht, um die Komplettierungsarbeiten nachvollziehbar zu machen.

Die Partitur ist käuflich, das Aufführungsmaterial leihweise erhältlich.
Anton Bruckner, Neunte Symphonie, IV. Satz
Ergänzt nach originalen Quellen und vervollständigt von Gerd Schaller
Revidierte Fassung  2018
Besetzung: 3 Fl 3 Ob 3 Kl 3 Fg – 8 Hr (5–6 auch TtB ,7–8 auch Btb) 3 Trp 3 Pos 1 Kbtb – Pk – Str
Dauer: ca. 25 Min.
© 2018 by Ries & Erler, Berlin
ISMN M-013-51487-8
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.rieserler.de

Ehrung in den USA: Julio Kilenyi Medaille

Für seine Verdienste um die Musik Anton Bruckners und seine Interpretationen selten gespielter Varianten von dessen Symphonien erhielt Gerd Schaller von der Bruckner Society of America die Julio Kilenyi Medaille. In der Laudatio aus der Feder des bekannten Bruckner-Forschers Benjamin Korstvedt heißt es:
...this award recognizes the tremendous accomplishment that this recording represents as one of the final pieces in the remarkable cycle of Bruckner recordings led by Maestro Schaller, including rare versions of several symphonies."
Benjamin M. Korstvedt, Board President

Bruckner-Aufnahme des Jahres

Bruckner-Aufnahme des Jahres
Ebenfalls von der Bruckner Society of America kam eine Auszeichnung für die kürzlich erschienene Aufnahme von Bruckners f-Moll-Symphonie (Studien-Symphonie), die zur „Besten Bruckner-Aufnahme des Jahres“ gekürt wurde. Ein Zitat aus der Würdigung:
"We salute Maestro Schaller’s interpretation, which is clear-sighted, intelligent, and highly musical. The orchestral performance is very fine, too. All in all, we find this to be a recording of high quality and, as one of the finest recordings of this underappreciated early masterwork, a valuable addition to the discography.