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09/08/2024
“Bruckner Piano Works”
Anton Bruckner: Piano Sonata in G minor, WAB 243 (sketch) – Klavierstück in E‑Flat major, WAB 119 – Fantasie in D minor – Stille Betrachtung an einem Herbstabend, WAB 123 – Minuet and Trio in G major, WAB 220 – Etude in G major, WAB 214 – Fantasie in G major, WAB 118 – Theme and Variations, n° 5, WAB 223 – 2 Waltzes, WAB 224 – Polka in C major, WAB 221 – Andante in E‑Flat major, WAB deest 3 – Chromatic Etude in F major, WAB 212 – Mazurka in A minor, WAB 218 – Stiermärker in G major, WAB 122 – Erinnerung, WAB 117 – 4 Lancier-Quadrille in C major, WAB 120
Mari Kodama (piano)
Recording: Studio 5, Muziekcentrum van de Omroep, Hilversum, the Netherlands (April 2024) – 59’38
SACD Pentatone PTC 5187 224 (Distributed by Naxos of America) – Booklet in English and German
 
Bruckner’s piano sketches have surfaced before on recordings, but they surely count as rarities. The present selection of twenty is not even close to comprehensive. All were written before the composer’s time in Vienna, and most before any of the published symphonies. Not surprisingly, then, what promises to be the most substantial piece here, a sonata-movement in G minor (WAB 243), hardly sounds like the Bruckner we know—in fact it is rather Classical, except perhaps for the range of modulation in the development section. It’s no less effective for that: dramatic and full of assurance. Much the same could be said of the more tranquil WAB 223, a theme-and-variations. These two pieces are the only ones running over five minutes.
Yet glimpses of Bruckner’s mature idiom can be found in some of the shorter works in the rest of the program. The uncatalogued Fantasie in D minor suggests the composer’s mastery of Wagnerian harmony, and the soaring upward scale that appears toward the end of Erinnerung (remembrance) is right out of the world of the mature symphonies. These works, in particular, impress for their ability to convey something like Bruckner’s familiar personality at the scale of a character piece, and very good character pieces they are too. An Andante in E‑Flat suggests something rather different, the slow movement of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” Soanta, but it’s poignant and wonderful in its way. Most of the rest of the program consists of minuets and other dance movements, which I think will surprise many listeners with their melodic invention and sheer charm. Really, almost everything here shows that Bruckner already had gifts for melody and craftsmanship, even if it would take him some time to express them in the larger forms to which he mainly dedicated his muse. Works like these make it clear that the occasional awkwardness of the early symphonies was no sign of incompetence, but rather a reflection of his attempt to create a new and extremely ambitious kind of symphony, which must be forgiven its trial-and-error stage.
I haven’t heard the other recordings of this music, and while Mari Kodama, perhaps, uses more pedal and less brightness of tone than I would like in the more delicate passages, she plays with sensitivity and conviction throughout. I feel comfortable recommending this totally convincing collection of miniatures to Brucknerians who would like to hear a surprising and satisfying side of the composer—and to Bruckner skeptics who don’t associate the composer with this kind of lightness and refinement.
Samuel Wigutow
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