ICSM Online Journal > Reviews

J Bruckner arr. Stein, Eisler and Rankl
Symphony No. 7 in E major, Thomas Christian Ensemble
MDG 603 1313-2
Reviewed by Martin Anderson
posted 13 Nov 2005

This is a Bruckner 7 very different from the one you’ll be used to. This arrangement – for clarinet, horn, string quartet, double-bass, four-hand piano and harmonium – made in 1921 by three of Schoenberg’s students, Hanns Eisler, Erwin Stein and Karl Rankl (all three later fugitives from Nazism) for his Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen. It’s a remarkable bit of collective work: the five strings essentially retain their former orchestral duties, horn and piano take over the brass, clarinet and harmonium take on joint responsibility for the woodwind. Of course, it’s not as sheerly impressive as Bruckner’s towering original; instead, it’s a softer, less emphatic work. In his booklet essay Hans Winking, who rediscovered the score, suggests that ‘One has the impression that one has direct listening access to Anton Bruckner’s compositional workshop’.

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