Synopsis

The symphonies of the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner were introduced to American audiences in the 1880s, when Bruckner was still alive and composing. Walter Damrosch introduced Bruckner’s Third to New York audiences in 1885, Theodore Thomas conducted the Seventh in Chicago in 1886, and Anton Seidl led the first New York performance of the Fourth in 1888.

Bruckner, then in his 60s, was thrilled to learn that Americans were performing his music. He would have been less thrilled had he seen the reviews. “Formless, weird, fragmentary, flimsy, uncongenial, and empty,” were just a few of the adjectives that greeted his music.

After Bruckner’s death in 1896, it was the Boston Symphony’s turn to take up his cause: On today’s date in 1901, Wilhelm Gericke led the American premiere of Bruckner’s Fifth, to mixed reaction: “Interesting, scholarly and very skillfully orchestrated, ”said some, “not very coherent or systematic,” said others.

When Bruckner’s Eighth debuted at a Boston Symphony matinee conducted by Max Fiedler in 1909, one reviewer wrote: “The work is, of course, massive, but it is massive like a business building, not like a mountain; it impresses one, but it does not move the emotions ... Altogether it made a trying afternoon.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Anton Bruckner (1824–1896) — Symphony No. 5 (Saarbrucken Radio Symphony; Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, cond.) Arte Nova 43305