They are the great Bruckner festival far and wide, the International Music Days at Speyer Cathedral 2024. They don’t just perform music by the master who was born 200 years ago, they place it in a meaningful context with its roots and adversaries. The first evening already had a clear message in magnificent performances: Bruckner’s music is as unique as almost any other in the history of Western music.
Fully occupied cathedral.Photo: Landry
Bruckner’s performance included “only” three of his sacred choirs and his first masterpiece, the Mass in D.
Cathedral organist Markus Eichenlaub.Photo: Landry
Before that, the opening concert in the fully-booked Speyer Cathedral featured two well-known sacred works from earlier times that are considered the ideal of Catholic church music. First, Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere Mei. For a long time, it was a musical mystery that could only be sung in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. At the study day that preceded it, Freiburg musicologist Meinrad Walter called it the smallest piece with the greatest impact in music history. The cathedral music has performed it several times. By distributing the solo tenor and the soloist ensemble around the room, it now had a sublime effect. It is simple and beautiful, and that is how it was sung.
Much applause, led by Bishop Wiesemann (right).Photo: Landry
Delicate beauty
The Speyer Cathedral Youth Choir and the Speyer Cathedral Choir also sang Mozart’s famous “Ave verum” with great warmth, another true classic of delicate beauty. It is no surprise that Abbé Franz Liszt paraphrased these two pieces in his “Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine”, his meditative evocation of this mystical place in the Eternal City. Cathedral organist Markus Eichenlaub gave Liszt’s organ work the aura it deserves, with often ethereal sounds.
Cathedral Kapellmeister Markus Melchiori at the podium.Photo: Landry
But not only the buildings in the Vatican, but also Speyer Cathedral can be understood symbolically as a place created by God – and that is why Bruckner’s most famous choral piece fits so well here: “Locus iste”. The choirs sang this movement, the “Os justi” and “Christus factus est” with captivating intensity, concise diction and a wide range of dynamic nuances. Cathedral Kapellmeister Markus Melchiori encouraged his ensemble to give a performance of great tension and absolute visualization of the interpretation of the text. With “Locus iste” music was heard in C major, “Os justi” is without accidentals in the Lydian key, with “Christus factus est” the D minor of the mass was reached. In the final concert on October 3, the music moves from D minor back to C major with the Credo of the F minor Mass and the Te Deum.
The soloists in Allegri’s Miserere.Photo: Landry
Bold solutions
The three sacred choirs presented are full of bold solutions and have a very wide range of dynamics. In the D minor Mass, the composer also comes up with absolutely individual and unusual solutions; here too, the vague beginning of the Kyrie is followed by enormous eruptions of sound and ideas without precedent.
Katharina Persicke, soprano (centre) and Elvira Bill, alto, right Markus Melchiori.Photo: Landry
Markus Melchiori made this very clear with his brilliantly singing choirs and brought the work to the point in a moving and ideal way. And that was the greatest mystery of the opening of these music days: being able to understand how the former school assistant, after hard studies at the advanced age of 40, suddenly found such an unheard-of musical language.
Christian Rathgeber, tenor.Photo: Landry
Moment of silence
The Mannheim Chamber Philharmonic took over the orchestral part with great confidence and beautiful sound. Markus Melchiori motivated them to play very clearly without any noticeable vibrato.
Marcel Brunner, Bass.Foto: Landry
The vocal soloists with rather small tasks fit perfectly into this gripping performance of the mass with their pointed and confident performance: Katharina Persicke, soprano, Elvira Bill, alto, Christian Rathgeber, tenor, and Marcel Brunner, bass.
At the end there was a very long moment of silence – and then a standing ovation for all participants, especially the choirs.
Choir and orchestra at Bruckner’s Mass.Photo: Landry
