(Ansfelden, September 4, 1824 - Vienna, October 11, 1896)
Son of a teacher, he was the same school teacher for several years, dedicating herself simultaneously to music primarily as an organist. Only in 1855 began to study seriously with Simon Sechter in Vienna, graduating in 1861, that is, at the age of 37! He still completed for some time in Linz under the guidance of Kitzler, who was ten years younger, studied the works of the neothexesque school (Wagner, Liszt), and finally, only at 40 years of age, he began seriously devote himself to the composition. Since 1868, he has taught at the Vienna Organ and Counterpoint Conservatory, and in the meantime, he is also known for the organ concerts (in 1871, he obtained in London, in this guise, a truly triumphant success). In 1875, he was appointed reader at the University, and in 1895, Francesco Giuseppe assigned him an apartment at the Belvedere. Hanslick was harshly hindered; his name served as a flag to the Wagnerian Viennese to bring him to Brahms, but he personally remained consistently out of these controversies, cultivating the composition with infinite seriousness and admirable candor: his work was initially appreciated only by a restricted circle of friends and admirers, but after his death his great symphonic and symphonic-core compositions began to find enthusiastic admirers not only in Austria but also in other European countries, and recently also in Italy.
Catholic, unlike Brahms, who was always strictly protesting, Bruckner is significantly affected by the Austrian Baroque, the counter-reform, and all Catholic sacred music. At the same time, it is formed in the best Austro-German symphonic tradition; it is an enthusiastic admirer of Wagner and the new trends of central European music. The peculiar characters of Bruckner's music arise directly from his human personality: a man without problems, profoundly mystical and with the thought constantly aimed at religion, who felt with sincere conviction, he formed with extreme slowness, and for all the existence he remained foreign In short, in the most intimate fibers of his being. All his music is a hymn to divinity, an act of tribute and otherworldly contemplation, an offer made to the Lord by candid hands and a pure heart. For this reason, he perhaps appears so far from our sensitivity, and he still exercises, on the other hand, still today, so much charm on many with his endless symphonies the grandiose choral hymns.
By expanding and illegal the classic symphonic forms, he produces incandescent poems, where time sometimes seems to stop in contemplation, as if he wanted to return to the harmony of nature, to the infinite harmony of the universe: first and second theme, exposure and development, everything merges into his symphonies in a vast sound fresco, where there is no more struggle, but only adoration and faith, the Holocaust of joys and human pains to the supreme entity.
Bruckner's most important production is the symphonic one, but his Requiem is also famous, and many other sacred compositions include masses, psalms, te deum, and choral pieces. He also composed songs, organs by organ, piano, and a quintet of arches.
The symphonies commonly performed by Bruckner range from number L to 9 and were written between 1865 and 1896, respectively. But there are two other symphonies of this composer (one in FA minor, composed in 1863 and without joke, and Another in D minor written shortly after and called "Symphony n. 0"), who do not enter the usual repertoire of concerts but serve to explain how already from the first Symphony Bruckner presents himself as a stylistically complete musician, who has already had the Possibility to "get your hand" in previous minor works. The first symphony thus inaugurates a homogeneous series of symphonic works, constituting a building of imposing proportions.
Also known as Symphony n. 00, the Symphony of Study in FA Minor, was Bruckner's first attempt in the form. Bruckner wrote him as part of an assignment for his latest composition teacher, Otto Kitzler. It was written in 1863 and was never performed during Bruckner's life. In fact, the Symphony was not performed until 1924, and its first modern execution was not until 1974. It was one of the only two symphonies Bruckner did not spend after moving to Vienna. Otto Kitzler, cello conductor and teacher, introduced Bruckner to Wagner and other composers using examples of their music in his lessons. Bruckner was ten years older than Kitzler and remained friends until Bruckner died in 1896. Although Bruckner had liquidated the study symphony as a Schularbeit (school work), in the following years, he never destroyed it as he did with other works that he did not like. Since it is the first Symphony known for being written by Bruckner, it would not take anything away from its curiosity value if the music were good or bad. But the Symphony shows flashes of the Bruckner to come and the composers who have had a first influence on him.
The symphony is written for winds in pairs, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, eardrums, and the usual complement of arches. It is in 4 movements:
I. Allegro Very lively - begins with a short and quiet motif in the arches to which a stronger reason responds in a more complete orchestration. These two reasons constitute the first theme and are repeated together with other material until a more fluid second theme is given in the arches. The woods then resume the second theme until it is swept away with a strong reason in brass. Another reason is still played by the oboe and marks the end of the exhibition, which is not repeated (at least in the recording attached at the end of this article, because the repetitions are in the score). The development section perhaps shows more skills than inspiration. The reason for opening appears in the horns together with other material. Reasons and fragments of themes come, and they come until a sequel to seamless continuity of recapitulation begins. The changes in shades, together with several leads to the themes, give variety while the music moves on a tail that refers to parts of themes before the music increases volume and ends.
II. Andante Molto - Bruckner was known for his adage movements in his symphonies, and in this second movement, you can listen to glimpses of the great slow movements that would then come. The opening leads to a theme played by an imploring oboe. Bruckner alternates violins with wood with a sweet accompaniment of lower arches. Music has a melodic sensation that continues until a minor key episode is stopped. The woods and horns try to change the atmosphere, but the minor interruption returns only briefly. The music of the beginning of the movement feels again, and it is then that the listener realizes that this movement is also in a sonata form because this is a recapitulation. A tail further develops fragments of themes until the reason for opening leads to a quiet ending with horn and eardrums.
III. Allegro, Veloce - This movement prefigures the type of music Bruckner would have composed. This joke already has the rhythmic push and qualities of the dynamics of the subsequent Brucknerian jokes, although not precisely the intensity. The trio section is in a slower time contrast with the joke and shows the influence Schumann has had on Bruckner right now.
IV. Allegro - This could have been the movement that Kitzler understood specifically when he said that the symphony was not inspired since the movement is not one of Bruckner's best works. But he was still a student (a 39-year-old student), and as they show his subsequent symphonies, he learned quickly. Sonata is in form, and, like the first movement, the connected registration does not repeat the exhibition. The tail shifts the shade in F major from FA minor, and the work ends with the entire orchestra.
