How did you discover Bruckner's music?

[Quijote]

Originally Posted by Musaeus

First point - I read one view that he, being a Catholic, wanted to be sure he was marrying a virgin!

Second, I suspect that very very long symphonies bore girls, especially young ones - and the trouble with composers is that they do need their girlfriends / wives to admire them!!

I'm sure you're right.

[Quijote]

In an attempt to generate a little bit more interest in Bruckner, I address this posting to Roehre who posted on the "What are you listening to now" thread about his 'displeasure' at the recording quality of the recent BPO/Rattle recording of Brucker IX with reconstructed Finale. Dear Roehre: what did you think about the reconstruction?

[Felix]

Actually I listened to the 4th yesterday - what on earth is going on in that first 20-minute movement? I couldn't fathom it. Was he perhaps on medication?

I have been a bit derogatory about Sibelius, but Scott has managed to arouse my love of the 4th Symphony, especially the opening bars and the first movement as well as all the rest. At first I reluctantly expressed my disappointment - due to a weak performance - but then he gave me a link to a stunning perfromance by Colin Davis and everything changed.

But Bruckner is the subject of this thread and I have had a somewhat ambivalent relationship to him. I have CDs of his Symphonies and I found them somewhat long winded, my fault I'm sure and not Bruckner's. I knowthat people I love passionately like Webern, loved Bruckner with the same passion. Adorno who was condescending about Bruckner, was converted by one of his Symphonies, conducted by Webern in London. Performance and interpretation mean a lot.

Once when I was on a return visit to Cape Town I heard the local well-trained Orchestra starting one of the Bruckner Symphonies with such exquisite sensitivity that I had to leave the hall, as the beauty was more than I could bear.

I have to admit that when I choose CDs from my library, I am liable to pick Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, Schönberg, Berg and others in preference to Bruckner,and OF COURSE Mahler who doesnt bore me for a second and is one of the giants of our tradition.

Yurs,
Felix

[Scott Good]

Originally Posted by Felix

Performance and interpretation mean a lot.

My friend Hugh wrote a little ditty about this.

Or is it the song? - Hugh Oliver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoYL5ecbkxc

(sorry, definitely not Bruckner)

[Felix]

And a charming ditty that was, Scott. It sums everything up.

Felix

[Musaeus]

I have been a bit derogatory about Sibelius, but Scott has managed to arouse my love of the 4th Symphony, especially the opening bars and the first movement as well as all the rest.

Glad you are fond of Sib - I always feel there is something great about him, and that he had a magnificent spirit.

I have CDs of his Symphonies and I found them somewhat long winded, my fault I'm sure and not Bruckner's.

I don't see why you should blame yourself. On the contrary, I think Quijote is to be blamed for being apparently in the grip of a Bruckner obsession (not that I am really in a position to criticise anyone for harping on a certain string, as perhaps the Don will not be slow to point out). Ambivalence about Bruckner is entirely civilised.

[Quijote]

All I can say at this juncture is that the more one listens to Bruckner, the shorter the symphonies seem to become.

[autolycus]

Originally Posted by Quijote

All I can say at this juncture is that the more one listens to Bruckner, the shorter the symphonies seem to become.

I agree they seem to get shorter. I just thought that was because that happens with everything as you get older.

They probably cease to seem long-winded [something I can't say I've ever experienced] when you can hear the rightness of everything.

Imho, Bruckner knew what he was doing

[Quijote]

Quite right, Autolycus.

[James C. Fretz]

Well, I am grateful for not having immediately been in a position to appreciate the Bruckner canon. As a young man, I found them dreadfully long-winded and so I spent years avoiding them as one would a thoughtless neighbor. And now I am rather glad I did, for after a lifetime of believing I'd heard everything and formulated an opinion on it all I went back to Bruckner and found that in my absence a light switch had been turned on. It's great fun to find oneself excited and enthusiastic over an old new discovery....or a new old discovery.