Lördag 14 november, kl. 18
Katarina kyrka, Högbergsgatan 13a Stockholm – SLs reseplanerare

Söndag 16 november, kl. 16
Katarina kyrka, Högbergsgatan 13a Stockholm – SLs reseplanerare

Mässa nr.3 i F-moll

År 1867 fick Anton Bruckner i uppdrag att komponera en mässa tillägnad hovkapellet i Wien, efter att hans Mässa Nr. 1 hade blivit en succé några år före. Bruckner blev klar med den första versionen 1867-1868 och verket fick namnet Mässa nr. 3 i F-moll. Efter premiären 1872 fortsatte kompositören att bearbeta verket, ofta före föreställningar, ända fram till 1893. Även därefter publicerades flera utgåvor av andra utgivare och redaktörer. Den första tryckta editionen uppskattades dock inte av Bruckner själv, efter att han upptäckte nytillagda parallella oktaver.

Filialen framför denna musik tillsammans med kör och solister från Katarina församling under ledning av Hans Vainikainen.

Hans Vainikainen, dirigent

Anton Bruckner

Katarina körer

About the music

 
Anton Bruckner’s mighty Mass No. 3 in F minor emerged at a pivotal moment in the composer’s life. In a way similar to the music which Beethoven composed following the Heiligenstadt Testament, it can be heard as a majestic expression of faith and gratitude. Beethoven’s contemplation and ultimate triumphant rejection of suicide in the face of progressive hearing loss is well known. A nervous breakdown in the spring of 1867 led to similar personal challenges for Bruckner.

The F minor Mass is the monumental, life-affirming music which Bruckner composed (against the advice of his doctors) in the year following his three-month-long recuperation at the sanatorium of Bad Kreuzen. Scored for a quartet of vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra, it is music which takes on symphonic dimensions. We get a glimpse of the awesome power and mysticism of Bruckner symphonies to come. The instrumental voices of the orchestra and the choral lines enter into a divine musical conversation. It is a mass for the concert hall as much as for the church. At first declared “too long and unsingable” by the conductor Johann Herbeck, the F minor Mass was praised by Johannes Brahms who “applauded…so enthusiastically…that Bruckner personally thanked him.” In 1895, a year before his death, Bruckner wrote that if he were able to again hear the Mass performed, it would be the “climax” of his life.

The Kyrie begins with a haunting descending motif which sets in motion a continuously developing contrapuntal drama. With each new phrase, the music seems to be searching for a way out of the dark towards transcendence. The Gloria which follows moves into joyful C major with a triumphant ascending transformation of the initial motif. A celebratory fugue concludes this movement, as well as the Credo. In the Et incarnatus section of the Credo, the angelic voices of the solo violin, woodwinds, and horn converse with the solo tenor. The brief Sanctus is followed by the celestial majesty of the Benedictus. Set in A-flat major, this movement begins with a string chorale which seems to anticipate Mahler adagios to come. The concluding Agnus Dei returns to the home key of F minor, only to reach the transcendence of F major for the Mass’ final prayer, Dona nobis pacem. The final moments drift off into the ultimate serenity with the pastoral voice of the oboe restating the four-note descending motif which began the Mass. Through the working out of a divine process, we arrive “home.”

Källa: Timothy Judd, The Listeners Club