Bruckner 7 (complete) - 'Great Music in a Great Space', St John the Divine NYC

Bruckner 7 (complete) - St John the Divine NYC, live concert:
'Great Music in a Great Space' - Tuesday 26th February.

I hope you will enjoy this live footage from the premiere of my new Bruckner 7 transcription. I am honoured to be Mr Bruckner's ambassador - well, after all, he was an Organist! I have tried to imagine what he would say, if he was standing over my shoulder. I hope he would be happy with the sound and flexibility of our incredible Skinner Opus 150A - to my mind, one of the very finest organ/acoustic combos in the US, if not even further afield.

Program notes:

I’m very pleased to welcome you to this, the world premiere of my new transcription of Anton Bruckner’s monumental Seventh Symphony. It represents the culmination of a huge and wonderfully enjoyable project, spanning just over 6 months.

Bruckner brought the Seventh Symphony to life between 23rd September 1881 and 5th September 1883, and made some substantial revisions in 1885. In January 1883 he had a premonition that his ‘master’ Richard Wagner did not have long to live. The news of Wagner’s death reached him while he was working on the score of the Adagio: the huge climax had been done, and all that remained was the closing section at rehearsal letter ‘X’. This became transfigured into a profoundly moving lament ‘in memory of the dearly beloved, immortal Master, now departed this life’.

The original manuscript of the Seventh Symphony rests in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. It embodies Bruckner’s original text and also the many modifications made by Josef Schalk and Ferdinand Löwe in January 1885: “We have gone through the the score of the Seventh with Bruckner, discussing some changes and improvements”. It seems that Bruckner was happy, indeed grateful, for these amendments - indicating a certain sensitivity and perhaps an innate vulnerability. One cannot imagine Gustav Mahler authorizing such changes by others!

The first orchestral performance took place on 30th December 1884, conducted by Arthur Nikisch, in the Town Theater at Leipzig, a concert intended to raise funds for the construction of a monument to Richard Wagner. The work was Bruckner’s first major triumph, and his reputation as a symphonist spread all around the world.

I hope you will enjoy my re-casting of one of the greatest orchestral masterpieces of the end of the C19th. One of my intentions is to prove that the St John the Divine organ has as much, if not more, color, flexibility and power than the full symphony orchestra. And, very importantly, we have the acoustic - and I hope through these two media, I can channel Mr Bruckner’s intentions with honesty and a degree of integrity and energy.