Bruckner, Anton (1824, 1896)

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), one of Austria's greatest 19th-century symphonists, was the son of a village schoolmaster and organist, with whom he first studied and for whom he could substitute when he was ten.

His father died in 1837 and he was sent at age 13 to be a chorister in the St. Florian monastery, where he studied organ, violin and theory.

He became a schoolmaster-organist, holding village posts, but in 1845 returned to teach at St. Florian, becoming organist there in 1851. During these years he wrote masses and other sacred works.

In 1855 he took a counterpoint course in Vienna with the leading theorist, Simon Sechter; in the same year he was appointed organist at Linz Cathedral.

He continued his studies to the age of almost 40, but more crucial was his contact, in 1863, with Wagner's music, first Tannhäuser, then Tristan und Isolde; these pointed him in new directions, as the Masses in d Minor, e Minor and f Minor, and Symphony no.1, all written in 1864-8, show.

In 1868, after Sechter's death, he was offered the post of theory teacher at the Vienna Conservatory, which he hesitantly accepted. In the ensuing years he travelled to Paris and London as an organ virtuoso and improviser.

In Vienna, he concentrated on writing symphonies; but the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra rejected Symphony no.1 as "wild", Symphony no.2 as "nonsense" and "unplayable" and Symphony no.3 as "unperformable"!

When Symphony no.3 was performed, it was a "fiasco".

Symphony no.4 was successfully played, but Symphony no.5 had to wait 18 years for a performance, and some of Symphony no.6 was never played in Bruckner's lifetime.

He was criticized for his Wagnerian leanings during the bitter Brahms-Wagner rivalries.

His friends urged him to make cuts in his scores (or made them for him); his lack of self-confidence led to acquiescence and to the formal distortion of the works as a result.

Only in the 1880s did he enjoy real success, in particular with Symphony no.7; his music began to be performed in Germany and elsewhere, and he received many honours as well as grants from patrons and the Austrian government.