Bruckner: Symphony No. 3, Wab 103

Description

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) A mediaeval artisan might easily have kept a daily recordof how many different prayers he prayed and how often he repeated them. For a composerof the nineteenth century, with its belief in unstoppable progress and human supremacy,to behave in this fashion is certainly unique. But Anton Bruckner, thoughaccepting the ham1onic and orchestral achievements of the Romantic period, didjust that; he did not really belong to his time. Even less did he fit in withthe Viennese environment into which he was transplanted for the last 27 yearsof his life. The elegant and rather superficial society he encountered theremust have thought the naive, badly dressed fellow with the 'wrong' accent a ratherpathetic oddity. Bruckner had indeed come from a very differentbackground. The little village in Upper Austria, Ansfelden, where his fatherwas a schoolmaster, was not far away from the great and beautiful monastery ofSt Florian. The young Bruckner followed in the footsteps of his father for ashort time; but St Florian possessed one of Europe's finest organs, and youngAnton, whose talent for music was discovered early, became an organist. Theexperience of hearing and playing this magnificent instrument became central tohis whole life. He spent many hours there, practicing and improvising, andeventually his playing was so exceptional that he made successful tours of Franceand England as an organ virtuoso. He had lessons in theory and composition, andstarted composing fairly early in life, but he felt the need for moreinstruction in counterpoint and became for several years a most diligent pupilof the famous Simon Sechter, visiting him every fortnight in Vienna, Many yearsearlier and shortly before his death, Schubert had also wanted to studycounterpoint with Sechter, but of course he was wrong; most of his life workwas already done, and works such as his early Mass in A flat showed himin no need of such lessons. Sechter forbade Bruckner to compose a single note inorder to concentrate entirely on his innumerable exercises, and here Bruckner,who had in the meantime advanced to the post of organist at Linz Cathedral,showed one unfortunate trait of his character, perhaps acquired as an altar-boy:utter submission to those he considered his superiors. He obeyed. But when hehad finished his instruction with Sechter and took lessons with the conductorofthe local opera, Otto Kitzler, who introduced him to themagic world of Wagner, music poured out of him Now forty, Bruckner composed hisfirst masterpiece, the wonderful Mass in D minor, followed by two othergreat Masses, and Symphony No.1. His reputation reached Vienna and hewas appointed to succeed Sechter as Professor of Music Theory. Bruckner had ample reason to regret his move from Linz to Vienna. He, the fanatical admirer of Wagner, was innocently dragged into therather silly conflict between the followers of Brahms and those of his belovedWagner. So he made many enemies, most