This Week in Classical Music: September 2, 2024. Bruckner 200. Several composers were born this week, the first and foremost of them – Anton Bruckner.We’re celebrating his 200thanniversary: Bruckner was born September 4th of 1824 in Ansfelden, a village outside of Linz.We love Bruckner and have written about him on many occasions, him personally (here, for example), as well as his music (here, about one of the several symphonies that we’ve touched upon). We had mentioned Bruckner’s notorious lack of confidence often: he was convinced that professional musicians knew and understood his music better than he did himself.This resulted in Bruckner rewriting major parts of practically all his symphonies over and over, sometimes following innocuous comments.In best cases we’re left with many editions of the same symphony: for example, he revised his Symphony no. 4, one of his most popular symphonies today, five times, and there are numerous editions of each revision, around 10 of them altogether.The Fourth was composed in 1872, the first revision followed one year later while the last one – in 1892, twenty years after the original composition was put to paper.But sometimes, things turned out much worse.Between January and September of 1869, Bruckner composed a symphony.It followed Symphony no. 1, which Bruckner completed in 1866 (as usual, many versions would follow, all the way to 1891), so he called it Symphony no. 2 (in D minor).Then, Otto Dessoff, a minor composer but a noted conductor who then led the Vienna Philharmonic, made a comment, and we’ll quote Georg Tintner, an Austrian conductor, on the consequences."How an off-hand remark, when directed at a person lacking any self-confidence, can have such catastrophic consequences! Bruckner, who all his life thought that able musicians (especially those in authority) knew better than he did, was devastated when Otto Dessoff (then the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic) asked him about the first movement: "But where is the main theme?"In the aftermath, Bruckner failed to submit the Symphony for a performance, and some years later, while reviewing his output, wrote "annullirt" ("nullified") on the front page and replaced the number (no. 2) with a symbol "∅" which was later interpreted as zero (0).Since then, the symphony acquired the designation of “Symphony no. 0.”The first performance was made in 1924, 55 years after it was completed, and the first recording – some nine years later, in 1933.There are many wonderful recordings of the symphony, one of them made by Bernard Haitink in 1966 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.You can listen to it here.
Bruckner had many detractors, Johannes Brahms being the foremost.Antonin Dvořák, Brahms’s follower and beneficiary, was also one of them.Dvořák was born on September 8th of 1841 in Nelahozeves, a village near Prague, then part of the Austrian Empire.His Symphony No.9, "From the New World," ranks highly on many lists of “most popular symphonies.”Clearly, Dvořák was a talented composer, but compared to Bruckner’s they sound somewhat trite, whereas Bruckner’s are fresh and, even now, innovative.
This was a rather special week: Darius Milhaud, Johann Christian Bach, Giacomo Meyerbeer, John Cage, Amy Beach, Isabella Leonarda, and Hernando De Cabezon were all born within these seven days.We’ll come back to some of them at a later date.
Bruckner 200, 2024
This Week in Classical Music: September 2, 2024. Bruckner 200. Several composers were born this week, the first and foremost of them – Anton Bruckner. We’re celebrating his 200th
anniversary: Bruckner was born September 4th of 1824 in Ansfelden, a village outside of Linz. We love Bruckner and have written about him on many occasions, him personally (here, for example), as well as his music (here, about one of the several symphonies that we’ve touched upon). We had mentioned Bruckner’s notorious lack of confidence often: he was convinced that professional musicians knew and understood his music better than he did himself. This resulted in Bruckner rewriting major parts of practically all his symphonies over and over, sometimes following innocuous comments. In best cases we’re left with many editions of the same symphony: for example, he revised his Symphony no. 4, one of his most popular symphonies today, five times, and there are numerous editions of each revision, around 10 of them altogether. The Fourth was composed in 1872, the first revision followed one year later while the last one – in 1892, twenty years after the original composition was put to paper. But sometimes, things turned out much worse. Between January and September of 1869, Bruckner composed a symphony. It followed Symphony no. 1, which Bruckner completed in 1866 (as usual, many versions would follow, all the way to 1891), so he called it Symphony no. 2 (in D minor). Then, Otto Dessoff, a minor composer but a noted conductor who then led the Vienna Philharmonic, made a comment, and we’ll quote Georg Tintner, an Austrian conductor, on the consequences. "How an off-hand remark, when directed at a person lacking any self-confidence, can have such catastrophic consequences! Bruckner, who all his life thought that able musicians (especially those in authority) knew better than he did, was devastated when Otto Dessoff (then the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic) asked him about the first movement: "But where is the main theme?" In the aftermath, Bruckner failed to submit the Symphony for a performance, and some years later, while reviewing his output, wrote "annullirt" ("nullified") on the front page and replaced the number (no. 2) with a symbol "∅" which was later interpreted as zero (0). Since then, the symphony acquired the designation of “Symphony no. 0.” The first performance was made in 1924, 55 years after it was completed, and the first recording – some nine years later, in 1933. There are many wonderful recordings of the symphony, one of them made by Bernard Haitink in 1966 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. You can listen to it here.
Bruckner had many detractors, Johannes Brahms being the foremost. Antonin Dvořák, Brahms’s follower and beneficiary, was also one of them. Dvořák was born on September 8th of 1841 in Nelahozeves, a village near Prague, then part of the Austrian Empire. His Symphony No.9, "From the New World," ranks highly on many lists of “most popular symphonies.” Clearly, Dvořák was a talented composer, but compared to Bruckner’s they sound somewhat trite, whereas Bruckner’s are fresh and, even now, innovative.
This was a rather special week: Darius Milhaud, Johann Christian Bach, Giacomo Meyerbeer, John Cage, Amy Beach, Isabella Leonarda, and Hernando De Cabezon were all born within these seven days. We’ll come back to some of them at a later date.