Anton Bruckner's Psalm 150, WAB 38, is a setting of Psalm 150 for mixed chorus, soprano soloist and orchestra written in 1892.
Richard Heuberger asked Bruckner for a festive hymn to celebrate the opening of the exposition ' on 7 May 1892, but Bruckner did not deliver the piece in time for Heuberger's purpose.
The work was premiered in the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna on 13 November 1892, with the and the soprano soloist Henriette Standthartner and Wilhelm Gericke conducting. The concert also included a Schubert overture and Liszt's Piano Concerto in E-flat major, followed by Richard Strauss' Wandrers Sturmlied and Mendelssohn's Loreley.
The manuscript, which was dedicated to Wilhelm Ritter von Hartel, is stored in the archive of the Austrian National Library. It was first issued in November 1892 with another dedication to , by , as well as a vocal and piano reduction score by Cyrill Hynais. The work is issued by in volume XX/6 of the '.
(Exhortation for praising God)
Bruckner's Psalm 150 in C major is scored for choir and soprano soloist, and orchestra (2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones (alto, tenor and bass), contrabass tuba, timpani, and strings).
Unlike the other psalm settings composed some 40 years earlier, for which he used a German-language Bible approved by the Catholic Church, Bruckner used this time the German-language Luther Bible for the text.
The 247-bar long piece starts out in C major, alla breve, with a tempo marking of ' (More slowly! Festive, strong) as the choir sings "Hallelujah" several times before moving on to the second line of the psalm. At rehearsal letter , marked ' (more moving), begins the listing of instruments with which to praise God. At , ' (More slowly) follows "'" At , with a return to the initial tempo, Bruckner repeats the opening "Hallelujahs", but at (bar 165) follows with "a complex fugue" starting with the words "'" once again ' (Slowly). Another return to the initial tempo at marks the beginning of the coda with the words "'". The theme of the fugue is related to that of the fugue of Bruckner's fifth symphony and that of the Adagio of his ninth symphony.
The last time Bruckner improvised at the organ, he used melodies from this psalm setting. Psalm 150 "shares both the key and the triumphant mood of rapturous exaltation of the ."
The first recording (c. 1950) was by Henry Swoboda with the and the , LP: Westminster WAL 201 (with Symphony No. 6 and Psalm 112). Swoboda's historical performances of Psalms 112 & 150 and Richard Strauss' Wandrers Sturmlied have been recently transferred to CD by Klassic Haus Restorations.
Among the ten other recordings, Hans Roelofs selects the following four recordings: