During rehearsals our choirmaster, Gavin Carr, told about the viral YouTube video of a hummingbird apparently snoring. I’m not sure quite how this was intended to inform our performance of Bruckner’s Mass in F minor – not at least by a direct imitation of its tone which was a bit shrill. I think we were to remember that the piece is far from being heavy and loud all the way through.
I’ve sung all Bruckner’s motets and his Te Deum but this piece was totally new to me. Trying to locate it in the matrix of things I’ve sung, I decided it worked best to treat it as if it were Elgar, who must have looked to Bruckner as a model. There’s a phrase in Elgar’s Benedictus (which I sang for the first time during rehearsals for the Bruckner) which I’m sure is lifted from the Agnus Dei of this mass. But Bruckner lacks the twinge of English melancholy that you find in Elgar. It’s all a little bit too certain for my taste. And what did he have against compound time? My score had one bar of it towards the end, but even that seemed to have vanished from more modern editions. A recurring problem was that of coming in in exactly the right place in the middle of several bars where the harmony didn’t change at all and some Urthema relentlessly ploughed on.
Nevertheless, I’m glad I’ve sung it and would be interested to do more Bruckner masses (the one accompanied by wind players sound particularly intriguing). We had good company in the shape of the Bath Phil (who also played Schubert’s 5th), a fine team of young soloists, and a sizeable and appreciative audience.