Braunfels: Te Deum, Op. 32

Album review

Walter Braunfels composed his setting of the Te Deum hymn in thanksgiving for his conversion to Catholicism after witnessing the horrors of the First World War from the front line. Though called a Te Deum, it is more aptly described as a choral symphony and was premiered under Hermann Abendroth in Cologne in 1922. According to one review, it received "the greatest success ever enjoyed by a world premiere in Cologne." Indeed, so impressive was the Te Deum that Braunfels was offered the directorship of the city's recently opened Musikhochschule -- a position he held until the Nazis seized power and they banished the half-Jewish, half-Catholic composer from his post and forced him to retire from public life. And that was that for Braunfels' Te Deum until this Orfeo release of a 2004 recording with Manfred Honeck leading the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, and the Swedish Radio Choir with soprano Gitta-Maria Sjöberg and tenor Lars-Erik Jonsson. With the light, energy, power, and fervor of their performance, you would never know Sweden did not have a long-standing familiarity with and deep affection for the work. If there is any chance for Braunfels' Te Deum to re-enter the repertoire, this recording provides it. The work itself is harmonically conservative -- far more conservative than Strauss and only a little less conservative than Pfitzner -- formally traditional -- Brahms would recognize the score's contrapuntal structures -- and emotionally ecstatic -- Wagner would recognize the score's exalted character. But the work's message is itself reactionary: only after the Apocalypse and Day of Judgment can humanity hope for Redemption. With brass fanfares, massed choirs, militaristic marches, and aggressive climaxes, Braunfels' Te Deum sounds like the son of Brahms' Triumphlied and the father of Brian's Das Siegeslied. Whether or not the listener is convinced by the work's music and message, everyone involved with this recording fervently believes that Braunfels' Te Deum is wholly deserving of a revival. Recorded live in Berwald Hall in Stockholm, Orfeo's digital sound is big, wide, and deep.
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