Choral Preludes Op. 77 No. 1 and 4

Wilhelm Kienzl (1857–1941)—a name I’ve known since childhood, when my grandparents listened every Saturday to the “Wunschkonzert” on ORF Austrian radio, eagerly awaiting the aria “Selig sind, die Verfolgung leiden” (Blessed are those who suffer persecution) from the opera *Der Evangelimann*. I was particularly fond of Fritz Wunderlich as a singer; not even the noise on the FM radio signal—as it traveled across the Iron Curtain from Austria to western Romania—could diminish the beauty of his magnificent voice.
This is not the only opera by the Austrian composer Kienzl. Along with Siegfried Wagner and Engelbert Humperdinck, he is regarded as a late Romantic composer and one of the successors to Richard Wagner, whom he greatly admired and whose inner circle he belonged to. Kienzl was also a music author and conductor, having served as opera conductor in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Krefeld, Munich, and Vienna. In Austria, he was honored in Vienna and Graz during his lifetime for his creative work and contributions.
He dedicated his 8 Chorale Preludes, Op. 77, from 1909 to Joseph Labor, who was then the leading authority on organ music in Vienna. Stylistically, he combines the form of Baroque chorale arrangements with the harmonies of the late Romantic period; he “stood apart from polyphonic and abstract music; his focus was on an emotionally charged, often rapturous, and philosophically spiritual expression,” as noted on biographien.ac.at.

0:00 – Auf meinen lieben Gott (Andante sostenuto)
4:07 – Ein feste Burg (Solemn, broad)

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