Barbara Bruckmüller’s Large Ensemble Visions

By Frank Alkyer I Nov. 12, 2024

“It was now or never because if you wait, wait, wait until you have some funding, maybe it will never happen,” Barbara Bruckmüller says of her ambitious new recording.
(Photo: Courtesy Barbara Bruckmüller)

Barbara Bruckmüller has a quiet tone with an easy laugh and smile. Her demeanor belies an intense love for large ensemble music, and even larger projects.

As she finished up working at a summer music camp in the south of Austria last August, the Vienna-based composer spoke to DownBeat about her latest grand-scale endeavor, Three Views Of A Musical Piece: A Chain Of Moments—–Suite In Five Movements.

It’s a stunning work, originally composed and performed in 2017 with her Barbara Bruckmüller Jazz Orchestra with strings, made possible through a grant from the Austrian Federal Chancellery.

The group performed and recorded it live that year, but Bruckmüller was unhappy with the results. “We played it once, and I had a piano player in line, but it didn’t work out,” she said. “So I played it myself.”

Bruckmüller said, yes, she is a pianist, but focuses on composing. She wasn’t completely happy with the final results, so she shelved the project for a few years.

After the pandemic, Bruckmüller was pushed by friends and family to finish it.

Funding such a project is expensive. Bruckmüller applied for grants from various cultural agencies, but they didn’t pan out. Instead, she was able to get funding from her family.

“Without them, I wouldn’t be able to do it,” she said. “You have 19 musicians. You have to pay them. That’s the point, right? It’s not the recording of studio or the mixing and mastering [that costs so much], but you want to pay the musicians. You want to pay them and do this the right way.”

With that hurdle cleared, she needed a pianist who could help bring her vision to life. In stepped Cuban pianist Aruán Ortiz.

“I met Aruán a few years ago,” she said. “I know him, and knew his music, and we were talking. I told him about the project, and that I’m still trying to make a recording and looking for a piano player. And he was like, ‘Yeah? What is it? What is it? Tell me. Tell me.’ So we got together and he said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it. I want to do this. I like it. I like the idea, and I like the music, so let’s do this.’”

That was the push she needed.

“It was now or never because if you wait, wait, wait until you have some funding, maybe it will never happen,” she said.

Then, Bruckmüller got another idea. What if she arranged A Chain Of Moments–Suite In Five Movements in three different configurations: for string quartet and piano, for jazz sextet and for her orchestra, strings and piano?

This huge, independently produced project just got bigger.

Bruckmüller booked three nights last February at Vienna’s Porgy and Bess, where she’s had a long-standing relationship, and she arranged the suite for each of the groups. They rehearsed non-stop for three days, then recorded each version of the piece as it was played before a live audience at the club.

The result is a three-album set representing a breathtaking piece of jazz-meets-classical fusion where listeners will find themselves doing an “A-B” or “A-B-C” test to compare and contrast the three beautifully crafted versions.

“It was pretty fast,” Bruckmüller laughed. “Yeah, this was pushing. My husband was pushing me to do it because normally I would take some time.”

Recorded in February, out to listeners by August, the rush included being eligible for the new Austrian Jazz Awards with an Aug. 5 deadline.

What’s not rushed is the music. Bruckmüller proves to be a spellbinding composer and arranger. Each of the discs has a beauty unto itself. The Chain Of Moments Quintet feels classical-meets-jazz, with Ortiz and the string quartet enjoying ample room to operate and breathe. The Chain Of Moments Sextet feels more jazz-meets-classical, with its talented group of European instrumentalists, and Ortiz digging deep. Finally, the Barbara Bruckmüller Jazz Orchestra & Strings featuring Ortiz presents the majestic, large ensemble version of Bruckmüller’s musical vision.

Doing three versions of the same suite in such rapid fashion may seem, well, crazy, but Bruckmüller’s approach was also pragmatic. Along with having the opportunity for the music to breathe in very different ways, it’s difficult to tour a large ensemble.

“With the big orchestral formation, you don’t get a lot of gigs,” Bruckmüller said. “It’s hard to get on tour. So, I was thinking, maybe, if I have this in a small ensemble together the way I want it, then I can bring my music to the people. I can’t afford going three weeks on tour with the big band.

“With the string quartet, I get the classical people more interested, right? And the jazz sextet will be more the people from the jazz side and free-jazz side. So I have two other options for venues.”

Now that the project is finished, Bruckmüller is pleased with what her community of musicians has accomplished — a far cry from her nervousness back in January.

“When it all started, I was like, ‘Am I crazy? What am I’m doing here? Like, really, I will never do this again.’” [laughs]

Now she’s on to the next phase. There is a video of the performances she intends to put out. And she plans to focus first on touring the string quartet version.

Beyond all of this, she released the music on her own Bicolorious Music Records label. For Bruckmüller, being an indie means embracing ambition. DB