How different or similar are Bruckner's symphonies?!
Question: The author Harold Shoenberg commented that those who dislike Bruckner feel he simply produced several versions of the same symphony.
There is a bit more to it than that, though...isn't there?
Answers: The author Harold Shoenberg commented that those who dislike Bruckner feel he simply produced several versions of the same symphony.
There is a bit more to it than that, though...isn't there?
My good friend, nobody seems to help you. Let's see if I can do anything, in spite of being far from my books and recordings. Schoenberg's observation is right in principle. It originates from many sources: a wienerisch snubby author vs. a humble man of the countryside; an instictive talent vs. one who matured very slowly starting from church organ up to the grand orchestra; an independent spirit versus a gregarious Wagner's follower. But, first and foremost, the idea of a young, new music, full of living yeast, as opposed to a decaying, post-romantic dissolution. Bruckner structure is very lengthy and repetitive: complex themes coming back in rondò mode (take the final of the 4th Romantic), abrupt pauses to resume the original tonality, then in the finale a swelling turgid sonority to build up a wall of sound, dominated by horns and trumpets. Sudden quotations: Schubert's scherzo in the 4th, the mournful Wagner's commemoration in the 7th, a religious dedication to God in the 9th.
Net, he's boring, I think this the technical term. His world, a mixture of religiousness, nervous diseases held together by a supreme mastering of the orchestra is peculiar. But I wouldn't take anything of him on a no-return trip.