The varieties of Bruckner

Synopsis

These days many insist that nobody understands or plays the symphonies of the 19th century Austrian composer Anton Bruckner like the Vienna Philharmonic—but that wasn't always the case. In his lifetime, Bruckner's highly original approach to the symphonic form was not always understood by Bruckner's friends or foes in Vienna.

The Viennese music critics favored the classically structured symphonies of Brahms. And since Bruckner idolized the music of Wagner, then considered Brahms' archrival and polar opposite, the critics had plenty of ammunition to direct at Bruckner's sprawling symphonies, which seemed to them as interminable and formless as Wagner's four and five hour-long operas. Early on, when the Vienna Philharmonic played a Bruckner symphony, more often that not it was drastically cut. On today's date in 1883, for example, the Philharmonic premiered just the second and third movements of Bruckner's Sixth Symphony.

On today's date in 1903, seven years after the composer's death, his pupil and ardent admirer Ferdinand Löwe conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the posthumous premiere of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. This time it was played complete—but dramatically altered. Löwe, assuming that Bruckner had wanted his symphonies to sound as much like Wagner as possible, reorchestrated the Ninth accordingly. It wasn't until the 1930s—some 40 years after Bruckner's death—that the Vienna Philharmonic began to play Bruckner's Symphonies complete and as he wrote them.

Music Played in Today's Program

Anton Bruckner (1826-1894) Symphony No. 6 in A Bavarian Radio Symphony; Eugen Jochum, cond. DG 429 790

Symphony No. 9 in d Minnesota Orchestra; Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, cond. Reference 81

On This Day

Deaths

• 1795 - Swedish song composer Carl Mikael Bellman, age 55, in Stockholm;

• 1939 - Austrian composer Franz Schmidt, age 72, in Perchtoldsdorf;

Premieres

• 1725 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 127 ("Herr Jesu Christ, wahr' Mensch und Gott") performed on Estomihi Sunday as part of Bach's second annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1724/25);

• 1727 - Handel: opera “Admeto” in London (Julian date: Jan. 31);

• 1785 - Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in d, in Vienna, with the composer as soloist;

• 1840 - Donizetti: opera "La fille du régiment" (The Daughter of the Regiment), at the Opéra-Comique in Paris;

• 1843 - Verdi: opera "I Lombardi" (The Lombards) in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala;

• 1883 - Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 (2nd and 3rd movements only), by Vienna Philharmonic, with Wilhelm Jahn conducting; Gustav Mahler led the Vienna Philharmonic on February 26, 1899, in the first, heavily cut, performance of the complete work;

• 1892 - Rachmaninoff: “Trio élégiaque” (Elegiac Trio) No. 1 in G minor, for violin, cello, and piano, in Moscow, with David Kreyn (violin), Anatoly Brandukov (cello), and the composer at the piano (Julian date: Jan. 30);

• 1903 - Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in a version prepared by Ferdinand Löwe, by the Vienna Symphony, with Löwe conducting; The original version of Bruckner's Ninth was first performed at a private concert in Munich on April 2, 1932, and then at a public Vienna Philharmonic concert conducted by Clemens Krauss on October 23, 1932;

• 1938 - Ernest Bloch: "Evocations" for orchestra, by the San Francisco Symphony, Pierre Monteux conducting;

• 1949 - Stravinsky: "Orpheus" ballet (as a concert work), by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting; The staged ballet had premiere in New York on April 28, 1948;

• 1952 - Hugo Weisgall: opera 'The Tenor," in Baltimore;

• 1953 - Chávez: Symphony No. 4 ("Sinfonía romantica") by the Louisville Orchestra, with the composer conducting;

• 1971 - Henze: "Compases para Preguntas ensimismandes" in Basel, Switzerland;

• 1973 - Feldman: "Voices and Instruments II," in Buffalo, N.Y.;

Others

• 1841 - First documented American performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 at the New York's Broadway Tabernacle, by the German Society of New York, Uri Corelli Hill conducting; Three movements of Beethoven's symphony (excluding the third) were given in April 3, 1841, at Boston's Odeon by the Academy of Music, Henry Schmidt conducting; The complete symphony was included on the first program given by the New York Philharmonic on December 7, 1842; The Symphony was presented next in Philadelphia (April 3, 1848), Baltimore (March 9, 1849), Louisville (May 14, 1853), St. Louis (May 17, 1853), and Milwaukee (April 27, 1855); On March 28, 1856, 30 players of the San Francisco German Society performed Beethoven's Fifth at the Music Hall in that city, with Rudolf Herold conducting (The San Francisco Chronicle review the following day noted: "The pieces in the program are very beautiful, but it must be said that some of them appeared to be considered very tedious by the greater number of the audience. The Adagio, Scherzo and Finale of Beethoven's Symphony in C Minor, for instance, are portions of a very grand and celebrated composition, but they caused many to yawn."); The first public performance of this symphony had occurred in Vienna, with the composer conducting, on Dec. 22, 1808;

• 1847 - American inventor Thomas A. Edison, the developer of the phonograph, is born in Milan, Ohio;

• 1907 - Italian composer Giacomo Puccini attends the American premiere of his opera "Madama Butterfly," conducted by Arturo Toscanini at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.