Symphonic Prelude (Bruckner)

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The Symphonic Prelude in C minor is an orchestral composition written by the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner . The reception history of the work, which was found shortly after the Second World War, is confusing and led to the attribution of an instrumented secondary version to Gustav Mahler , which still dominates music practice to this day, although the composition is very likely by Bruckner himself.

Discovery and premiere

Shortly after the Second World War, the Viennese composer Heinrich Tschuppik discovered the 43-page manuscript of a score in the estate of his uncle Rudolf Krzyzanowski (1859–1911) , with the inscription “ Rudolf Krzyzanowski cop. 1876 ”on the first page, on the last page in large blue letters“ by Anton Bruckner ”. Krzyzanowski, who later worked as a conductor in Weimar , among others , was a student of Anton Bruckner and, together with Gustav Mahler, had made a piano version of Bruckner's 3rd Symphony . Tschuppik published a report on his find in the Swiss music newspaper in 1948 .

Tschuppik made a fair copy of the score of the orchestral parts written out and also created a short score in two copies. Tschuppik presented the work to Bruckner connoisseurs Max Auer and Franz Gräflinger , as well as the Swiss conductor and composer Volkmar Andreae . These confirmed Bruckner's authorship. Andreae was also ready to take on the world premiere of Tschuppik's movement, which has meanwhile been titled Symphonic Prelude , with the Vienna Philharmonic . The premiere, scheduled for January 23, 1949, did not take place, however, because the orchestra members did not agree with the attribution to Bruckner, and the musicologist Leopold Nowak , who was entrusted with an expertise , did not provide a definitive result. Instead, the Munich Philharmonic under Fritz Rieger premiered the composition on September 7, 1949. In 1949 Tschuppik left a photocopy of the manuscript to the Austrian National Library, the original remained with him. Tschuppik died in 1950. His fair copy of the score along with handwritten orchestral parts and a short score have been in the archives of the Munich Philharmonic since its performance in 1949. The original Krzyzanowski manuscript remained in the possession of Tschuppik's descendants until the end of the 1980s, the photocopy was kept by Leopold Nowak, who died in 1991, without ever publishing an investigation result.

Further attribution history

In 1948 Tschuppik gave away one of his two particell copies (torn into several parts) along with posthumous songs to Gertrud Staub-Schlaepfer (Zurich). She noted at the beginning of the particell: “Couldn't that be a work f. Be Gustav Mahler's exam? Krzyzanowski edited the piano reduction for Bruckner's Third Symphony (2nd version) together with Mahler. ”In September 1949, Gertrud Staub-Schlaepfer gave the short score with her note to the Austrian National Library.

The American musicologist Paul Banks came across this short score thirty years later . Without knowing about the premiere in 1949 and the existence of the performance material, nor knowing the photocopy of the score and Krzyzanowski's original manuscript, he had to assume that this was the only source of the work. Banks ruled out Bruckner's authorship for compositional-structural reasons and the handwritten note on the short score. After considering possible authorship from the Bruckner circle of that time ( Hans Rott , Gustav Mahler, Hugo Wolf and Krzyzanowski himself), he came to the conclusion that it was very likely one of Mahler's numerous lost early works from his studies at the Vienna Conservatory. The Berlin composer Albrecht Gürsching was commissioned to create an instrumentation based on the particell. In this secondarily reconstructed form, the work was premiered - again - as " Symphonic Praeludium by Gustav Mahler " with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Lawrence Foster on March 15, 1981 and was published by Sikorski-Verlag .

enlightenment

In 1985, the German conductor Wolfgang Hiltl ( Niedernhausen ), who had found the score and parts in the archives of the Munich Philharmonic, explained the actual situation and also illustrated the high probability of an attribution to Bruckner based on stylistic features. Hiltl published other articles on this, was also able to acquire Krzyzanowski's original manuscript in the 1990s and published it in 2002 at the Doblinger Music Publishing House in Vienna, including a modern score version as well as a facsimile of Krzyzanowski's manuscript. In 2008 Wolfgang Hiltl died in a Wiesbaden hospital. His estate - including Krzyzanowski's original manuscript - was cleared and disposed of by the city administration of his last residence in Niedernhausen.

Music practice largely ignored the situation: recordings and performances continued after 1985 with the attribution to Gustav Mahler (including a recording from 1992 under Neeme Järvi for Chandos Records ). The performance version of Albrecht Gürsching available from Sikorski continues to figure (as of 2014) under the composer's name Mahler.

The first recording of the original material published by Doblinger was made in 2013 (Moore's School Orchestra under Michelle Perrin Blair ).

characterization

The one-movement, overture-like Symphonic Prelude has 293 bars and is in C minor. Formally, it uses an extended sonata form with three distinct subject groups. According to Hiltl's analysis, the stylistic position of the work corresponds to Bruckner's creative phase between 1871 and 1876, in which the early versions of his 2nd to 5th symphonies were also created.

The instrumentation of Krzyzanowski's writing corresponds to that used by Bruckner at this time, with 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , bass tuba , timpani and strings . Albrecht Gürsching's instrumentation also uses the piccolo , contrabassoon , harp and cymbal .

The performance lasts about 8 minutes (the first recording of the original version from 2013 takes 6:33 minutes).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Tintner & the Symphonic Prelude
  2. ^ Heinrich Tschuppik: A newly found work by Anton Bruckner , Schweizerische Musikzeitung 88/1948, p. 391
  3. ^ Paul Banks: An Early Symphonic Prelude by Mahler? In: 19th Century Music 3/1979, University of California, pp. 141-149
  4. ^ Wolfgang Hiltl: A forgotten, unrecognized work of Anton Bruckner? In: Studies on Musicology / Supplements to the Monuments of Music Art in Austria , Vol. 36, Tutzing 1985, pp. 53–85
  5. ↑ Symphonic Prelude in C minor, »Rudolf Krzyzanowski cop. 1876 ​​"/" by Anton Bruckner ", facsimile and score, edited by Wolfgang Hiltl, Doblinger / Vienna, 2002
  6. ↑ Work information Sikorski-Verlag
  7. ↑ a b Discography of the Symphonic Prelude
  8. ^ Wolfgang Hiltl: Symphonic Prelude: A Forgotten, Unrecognized Work of Anton Bruckner? In: Studies on Musicology / Supplements to the Monuments of Music Art in Austria , Vol. 36, Tutzing 1985, p. 64 ff.
  9. ^ Wolfgang Hiltl: Symphonic Prelude: A Forgotten, Unrecognized Work of Anton Bruckner? In: Studies on Musicology / Supplements to the Monuments of Music Art in Austria , Vol. 36, Tutzing 1985, p. 78.

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