Gerd Schaller

Gerd Schaller (born 1965) is a German conductor, best known for his performing and recording rare works, including the first full recordings of Bruckner's output.

Career Schaller studied music at the Würzburg College of Music, and medicine at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. Since 2006, he has worked freelance as a guest conductor with numerous orchestras, primarily in Germany, but also in the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Schaller's repertoire includes conducting German and Italian works, including those of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and Giuseppe Verdi.

In 2008, Schaller founded the Philharmonie Festiva. Its core of Munich Bach Soloists has been expanded with musicians from across Germany.

In 2016, Gerd Schaller was unanimously selected by the Bruckner Society of America as the recipient of its Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor.

Bruckner recordings Bruckner's Symphonies Schaller is noted for his recordings of all of Anton Bruckner's symphonies, including versions never recorded before, for the Profil label of Edition Günter Hänssler. The recordings have been praised by Ken Ward, editor of The Bruckner Journal, as "a little musical miracle." Music critic David Hurwitz asserts Schaller "really is an excellent Bruckner conductor", and in reviewing Schaller's recording of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony, he states that Schaller, "doesn't put a foot wrong." AllMusic, reviewing a recording of Bruckner's Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Symphonies, notes, "The live performances of all three symphonies by Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva are first-rate, with great attention to detail and controlled pacing that give the music propulsive movement and coherence." The same recording of the Fourth, Seventh and Ninth Symphonies was selected by Stereophile magazine in November 2011 as its "Recording of the Month".

BRUCKNER2024 BRUCKNER2024 aims to perform all symphonies in all versions, including the rare intermediate versions, and to record them on CD by the 200th birthday of the composer Anton Bruckner. It is a co-production project between Gerd Schaller, the Philharmonie Festiva, the Bayerischer Rundfunk - Studio Franken, the CD label Profil Edition Günter Hänssler and the Ebracher Musiksommer. The basis of the project is the Bruckner cycle recorded by Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva, primarily in the abbey church of the former Cistercian monastery in Ebrach since 2007, which is gradually being supplemented by recordings of other versions and on September 4, 2024, for the 200th birthday of the composer Anton Bruckner should be finished.

Schaller’s completion of Bruckner's Ninth (2016) With the final movement of Bruckner's Ninth being a notable unfinished work, Schaller has composed his own completion of the Symphony, closely based on Bruckner's notes, taking into account all available draft materials as far back as the earliest sketches, to close the remaining gaps in the score as much as possible, using original manuscript documents of Bruckner's, and running to 736 bars. Additionally, Schaller was able to supplement archival and manuscript material with missing elements in the score by drawing on his experience as a conductor, and of applying Bruckner's compositional techniques to the recordings of the complete cycle of all the composer's eleven symphonies; so that even passages without continuous original material are in a recognisably Brucknerian style. Schaller first performed his version of the finale with the Philharmonie Festiva in the abbey church at Ebrach on July 24, 2016, as part of the Ebrach Summer Music Festival. Reviewing the double-CD recording of the performance, Ralph Moore writes that the performance was an, "account to vie with the very best, immeasurably enhanced by an extraordinarily rich and complex arrangement and “elaboration” of the accumulated mass of sketches and sections of score which Bruckner left behind. Even without the finale, this would have been a monumental event; the addition of Schaller's completion made it one of those musical memories to treasure", and concludes that, "Schaller certainly makes musical sense of the remnants of Bruckner’s score and the memory of my encounter with the final ten minutes of this performance remains for me one of the most thrilling musical experiences of my life." and continued,

"Previous attempts to complete the 4th movement ended fully out of style, [...]. Not so Schaller's version. He matches first time the dimension of the symphony and manages to set a point on top for a fulminate final. And even better, this new version even has a "Reprise", that none of the others tried, although in can be found in Bruckner's sketches. Schaller created an excellent coda with a full dramatic development before it. He made like a retrospective of other Bruckner's symphony themes but citing them in an indirect and modified way. Bruckner's doctor noted that Bruckner had played for him the version of the finale on piano, where he overlapped the themes of the last symphonies. Exactly this was done by Gerd Schaller, giving the coda as much authenticity as possible from the currently available material and information."

Timings of the four movements are as follows:

Schaller's organ transcription of Bruckner's Ninth including the version of the Finale (revised 2020) In 2020 he arranged Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony, including the final movement that he completed, for organ and played it himself on the main organ of the former Cistercian abbey church in Ebrach. The Bayerischer Rundfunk (Studio Franken) produced the recording, the CD was released in 2021 by Profil Edition Günter Hänssler. Gerd Schallers work was guided by 19th-century French organ composers Alexandre Guilmant, Louis Vierne and Charles Marie Widor, all of whom wrote organ sonatas and symphonies for the instrument. In The Bruckner Journal Ken Ward writes: "But what Schaller has created from Bruckner’s 9th is an ‘organ symphony’ – not as a poor substitute for the real thing, but as a work to be considered in parallel to the original."

Orchestral Version of Bruckner's Quintet 2018 Gerd Schaller has prepared an orchestral version of Bruckner's string quintet, the first for full orchestra. The original chamber polyphony of the five solo string players is retained in his strategy of arrangement, but at the same time much symphonic material is incorporated. It's a Classical-Romantic arrangement with doubled woodwinds, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones and timpani to preserve the structures of the original composition and at the same time reinforce the symphonic content.

Rare works Schaller's recording career has had a strong emphasis on lesser-known operas and concert rarities, including the first recordings of numerous pieces. His recordings of lesser-known operas have included Karl Goldmark's The Queen of Sheba, and Goldmark's Merlin; as well as the first recording of Johann Simon Mayr's Fedra in co-operation with North German Radio. His first recordings of other pieces include Johann von Herbeck's Great Mass.

Schaller's recording of Merlin won the ECHO Klassik Prize in 2010 in the "Opera Recording of the Year (19th century)" category.

In addition to his opera recordings, his live performances have included Alban Berg's Wozzeck, Jules Massenet's Hérodiade, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die tote Stadt (The Dead City), Alexander von Zemlinsky`s The Dwarf, Francesco Cilea`s Adriana Lecouvreur, and Leoš Janáček's The Makropulos Affair. First Symphony – Linz version of 1866 (Carragan edition) – PH12022 (2012) Symphony in D minor of 1869 – PH15035 (2015) Second Symphony – version of 1872 (Carragan edition) – PH12022 (2012) Third Symphony – version of 1890 (Schalk edition), PH18002 (2018) Fourth Symphony – version of 1874 – (Edition Schaller) – PH 22010 (2021) Fourth Symphony – version of 1878/80 – PH11028 (2011) Fifth Symphony – PH14020 (2014) Seventh Symphony – PH11028 (2011) Ninth Symphony – with final movement completed by William Carragan in the 2010 revision – PH11028 (2011) Ninth Symphony – completed version; arranged for organ by Gerd Schaller; with final movement completed by Schaller (rev. 2020), double CD – PH21010 (2021)

Recordings with the Munich Philharmonic Choir Karl Goldmark: Merlin, premiere recording – PH09044 (2009) Franz von Suppé: Requiem – PH12061 (2012) Johann Ritter von Herbeck: Great Mass, premiere recording – PH15003 (2015) Anton Bruckner: Mass 3, Psalm 146, Organ works – PH16034 (2016)

Other recordings Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 3 – PH15030 (2015) Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 4 – PH15030 (2015) Franz Schubert: "Unfinished" Symphony in B minor D759 in the four-movement version of William Carragan, premiere recording – PH12062 (2012) Franz Schubert: "Great" Symphony in C major D944 – PH12062 (2012)