Ave Maria II in F Major

Bruckner wrote three vocal settings of the traditional Christian prayer Ave Maria, the best known of which dates from 1861. Although it predates the mighty sequence of nine symphonies on which Bruckner’s reputation mainly rests, the 1861 Ave Maria is by no means an apprentice piece. Written in seven parts—a single line for sopranos, with altos, tenors and basses each divided in two—the work begins ethereally, the top three parts tenderly intoning a blessing on Mary, Mother of Christ. The thrice-repeated chant of “Jesus”, perhaps symbolic of the Holy Trinity, is central to the setting. Its final iteration brings all seven voice parts together for the first time, in an ecstatic burst of sound. Richly glowing textures adorn the piece’s central veneration of Mary, before a gradually more subdued coda entreats the Virgin to “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death”.