music.wikisort.org - Composition

Anton Bruckner composed about fifty small piano works, the earliest in 1850, the last in 1868.

Works for piano for two hands

Seven works are edited in Band XII/2 of the Bruckner's Gesamtausgabe.[1] These works were mainly composed for his piano pupils during his stay in St. Florian (1845–1855) and in Linz (1855–1868).[2]

• Four Lancier-Quadrille, WAB 120, in C major, compiled in c. 1850 from melodies from Albert Lortzing's Der Wildschütz and Zar und Zimmermann, and Gaetano Donizetti's La fille du régiment,[3] as exercise for his piano pupil Aloisia Bogner:[4] Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/2, No. 1[5][6]
• Steiermärker (From Steiermark), WAB 122, a 32-bar long piece in G major, composed also in c. 1850 for Aloisia Bogner:[4] Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/2, No. 2[5] It is a kind of stylised Ländler in A-B-C-A form.[6]
• Klavierstück, WAB 119, an 18-bar long "piece for piano" in E-flat major, composed in c. 1856 for teaching purpose: Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/2, No. 3[5][7][8]
• Sonatensatz, WAB 243, a 194-bar long first "movement of a sonata" in G minor, found on pp. 157–164 of the Kitzler-Studienbuch: Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/2, No. 7 (Addendum). The partially missing score for the left hand has been completed by Walburga Litschauer.[9][10]
• Stille Betrachtung an einem Herbstabend (Quiet meditation on an autumn evening), WAB 123, a 58-bar long piece in F-sharp minor. A paraphrase of Mendelssohn's Lied ohne Worte opus 30, No. 6, which Bruckner composed on 10 October 1863 for Emma Thanner: Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/2, No. 4[7][11]
• Fantasie, WAB 118, a 119-bar long, two-part "fantasia" in G major composed on 10 September 1868 for Alexandrine Soika: Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/2, No. 5[7][9]
• Erinnerung (Remembrance), WAB 117, a 52-bar long piece in A-flat major composed in c. 1868: Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/2, No. 6[9][12]

Piano works composed during Kitzler's tuition

Other piano works, which Bruckner composed in 1862 during Kitzler's tuition,[13] are found in the Kitzler-Studienbuch:[14][15] A not exhaustive list:

Works for piano for four hands

• Drei kleine Stücke, WAB 124, three easy pieces (G major, G major and F major), composed in 1853, 1854 and 1855 for the children of Josef Marböck, to be played on their father's birthday: Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/3, No. 1[9]
• Quadrille, WAB 121, composed in c. 1854 for Marie Ruckensteiner Gesamtausgabe, Band XII/3, No. 2.[16] It consists of six pieces: Pantalon (A major), Été (D major), Poule (A major), Trénis (F major), Pastourelle (D minor) and Finale (E major).

Selected discography

There are about 10 recordings of Erinnerung, WAB 117. The other piano compositions are much less recorded.

Five recordings are dedicated to Bruckner's piano works:

• Wolfgang Brunner and Michael Schopper, Anton Bruckner – Piano works – CD: CPO 999 256–2, 1996 (all of the piano works issued in Band XII/2 and Band XII/3)
• Fumiko Shiraga, Anton Bruckner – Piano works – CD: Bis-CD-1297, 2001 (the works for two hands issued in Band XII/2)
• Ana-Marija Markovina and Rudolf Meister, Anton Bruckner (1824 - 1896), Piano Works – Hänssler Classic, HC17054, 2018 (all of the piano works issued in Band XII/2 and Band XII/3, as well as 13 piano works from the Kitzler Study Book)
• Francesco Pasqualotto, Bruckner Complete Piano Music – CD Brilliant Classics 95619, 2019 (the works for two hands issued in Band XII/2, as well as 21 piano works from the Kitzler Study Book)
• Todor Petrov, Bruckner - L'œuvre pour piano seul - CD Forgotten Records FR 1998/9, 2021 (the works for two hands issued in Band XII/2, as well as 39 piano works from the Kitzler Study Book)

References

Sources

• August Göllerich, Anton Bruckner. Ein Lebens- und Schaffens-Bild, c. 1922 – posthumous edited by Max Auer by G. Bosse, Regensburg, 1932
• Anton Bruckner – Sämtliche Werke, Band XII/2: Works for solo piano (1850–1869), Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Walburga Litschauer (Editor), Vienna, 1989 (Available on IMSLP: Neue Gesamtausgabe: XII/2. Werke für Klavier zu zwei Händen)
• Anton Bruckner – Sämtliche Werke, Band XII/3: Piano works for four hands (1853–1855), Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Walburga Litschauer (Editor), Vienna, 1989
• Anton Bruckner – Sämtliche Werke, Band XXV: Das Kitzler Studienbuch (1861–1863), facsimile, Musikwissenschaftlicher Verlag der Internationalen Bruckner-Gesellschaft, Paul Hawkshaw and Erich Wolfgang Partsch (Editors), Vienna, 2015
• Uwe Harten, Anton Bruckner. Ein Handbuch. Residenz Verlag [de], Salzburg, 1996. ISBN 3-7017-1030-9.
• Cornelis van Zwol, Anton Bruckner 1824–1896 – Leven en werken, uitg. Thoth, Bussum, Netherlands, 2012. ISBN 978-90-6868-590-9
• Crawford Howie, Anton Bruckner – A documentary biography, online revised edition

External links

• Neue Gesamtausgabe - XII/2. Werke für Klavier zu zwei Händen: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
• Scores of piano works on John Berky's website
• Werke für Klavier Critical discography by Hans Roelofs (in German)
• Live performances of some Bruckner's piano works can be heard on YouTube:
  • Anton Bruckner – Sämtliche Werke, Band XII/2 by Vadim Chaimovich
  • The four Lancier Quadrille by Andrzej Jendryczko
  • Steiermärker & Klavierstück Es-Dur by Markus Staab
  • Stille Betrachtung an einem Herbstabend, Steiermärker & Klavierstück Es-Dur by Clark Bryan
  • Stille Betrachtung an einem Herbstabend by "M1kek0" (2010)
  • Erinnerung and Fantasie in G major by Gottfried Hemetsberger
  • The Drei kleine Stücke WAB 124, by Raúl de la Mora & Héctor Ocampo (2011)

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