Talk:Ave Maria (Bruckner)

A fact from Ave Maria (Bruckner) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 5 November 2014 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Anton Bruckner's Ave Maria for seven voices, the first motet composed after his studies, was sung by his choir in the Linz Cathedral (pictured)?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2014/November. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Ave Maria (Bruckner).

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Bruckner's Ave Maria[edit]

Bruckner, as fervent Catholic, composed three settings of the Ave Maria. The first (WAB 5) in 1856, as a kind of farewell to St Florian, the second (WAB 6) in 1861, the first motet he composed after Sechter's tuition, and the third (WAB 7) in 1882 for a famous alto soloist, who had a tessitura of two octaves. All three are in the same key of F major, which can be a source of confusion. I had so to correct it on IMSLP, in which the score of WAB 6 was erroneously put in a page describing WAB 5...

Locus iste is the most popular motet of Aton Bruckner. The second setting of the Ave Maria (WAB 6) is his second most popular motet. The last year I find nearly every week at least one new upload of one of these two motets on YouTube. Hans Roelofs counted in March 2012 about 580 recordings of the Locus iste, and about 425 recordings of the Ave Maria WAB 6. In Hans' critical discography you find a review of about 240 and 150 commercial recordings of these motets, respectively.

The two other settings of the Ave Maria are far less popular, with in Hans' critical discography about 10 and 20 commercial recordings, respectively. In my own discography I have 5 commercial recordings of WAB 5 and 17 commercial recordings of WAB 7 (a compilation nicely provided by Hans).

I am intended to expand the article, and perhaps to make later a split for each of the three settings. --Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 09:23, 6 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Discography[edit]

There are two recordings with the three settings : Robert Shewan with a semiprofessional choir in 1983 (LP, recently remastered to CD) and 1991. In both recordings the Ave Maria WAB 7 is song by a baritone with operatic voice. In 1991 the soloist is missing the Amen. For these reasons, neither Hans Roelofs nor myself would select these recordings.

I thus think that there rather should be a separate discography for each of the three settings:

For WAB 5, out of about 10 commercial recordings, Hans selects Petr Fiala (2006), Erwin Ortner (2008) and Joseph Pancik (1993), and as outsider Klava (live, 1996) because of the soprano soloist. Of these recording only Ortner is 100% faithful to the score (i.e., with cello).
For WAB 6, out of about 150 commercial recordings, Hans selects John Alldis (1967), Matthew Best (1982), Eva Svanholm Bohlin (2007), Richard Bradshaw (c. 1974), André Charlet (1982), Michel Corboz (2011), Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl (2011), Peter Dijkstra (2005), Eric Ericson (1975), Petr Fiala (2006), Uwe Gronostay (1995), Elmar Hausmann (1983), Philippe Herreweghe (1989), Otto Kargl (2013), Erwin Ortner (2008), John Rutter (1991), Rolf Schweizer (1975), Lionel Sow (204), Dan-Olof Stenlund (2004), Winfried Toll (2002) and Hans Zanotelli (1979).
For WAB 7 out of about 20 commercial recordings, only a few are performing faithfully to the score, i.e., singing the difficult two-octave Amen: Sigrid Hagmüller on Rupert Frieberger's CD (1995), and Anne-Marie Owens on Simon Halsey's CD (1990). Other better recordings are Petr Matusek (1994: baritone), Vera Ilieva (mezzosoprano, c. 1999: transponed by a minor third to A-flat major), and Ingrid Gunther on Hubert Gunther's CD (c. 1980: organ replaced by string orchestra).

--Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 13:40, 6 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Please go ahead and insert, call it Selected recordings, if not complete, - for WAB 6 it never will be. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:30, 6 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Bruckner's Ave Maria settings[edit]

I think it would be better to rename the page Ave Maria (Bruckner) to Ave Maria, WAB 6 (Bruckner), instead of the current redirection from Ave Maria, WAB 6 (Bruckner) to Ave Maria (Bruckner). Reason: After re-categorised Ave Maria, WAB 5 (Bruckner) and Ave Maria, WAB 7 (Bruckner) to Category:Motets by Anton Bruckner we have, oddly enough, one Ave Maria without WAB number and two with WAB numbers 5 & 7. --Réginald alias Meneerke bloem (To reply) 15:00, 7 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]