Anton Bruckner, (1824–1896)

Bruckner is an outstanding symphonist. Among the great composers of the 19th century, he occupies a very special place. Having devoted his work almost exclusively to symphonies, creating majestic and sublime works in this genre, the composer was completely devoid of the typical features of a romantic artist of that time. Growing up in a patriarchal environment, he absorbed her views and until the end of his life retained the appearance of a simple-minded village musician. At the same time, the time in which he lived could not help but leave its mark on him, and naive patriarchal features were uniquely combined in his work with the worldview of man in the last third of the 19th century. Wagner’s words about him are known: “I know only one who approaches Beethoven; This is Bruckner." This phrase, uttered in 1882, was perceived as a paradox: Bruckner, standing on the threshold of his sixtieth birthday, the author of six monumental symphonies, was essentially not known to the public at all. Interest in it awoke only in the mid-80s, after the famous conductor A. Nikisch performed the Seventh Symphony. The reason for this is precisely the originality of the composer’s creative path and personality. “Schubert, encased in a shell of brass sounds, complicated by elements of Bach’s polyphony, the tragic structure of the first three movements of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Wagner’s “Tristan” harmony” - this is who Bruckner is, according to the definition of an outstanding musical figure and critic of the 20-30s of the 20th century. I. Sollertinsky.

Despite his dissimilarity to the usual stereotype of a romantic artist, Bruckner nevertheless embodied in his work romantic collisions that nourished more than one generation of musicians, poets, and artists. The tragic discord between man and society, between dream and reality - the theme to which Schubert and Schumann, Liszt and Tchaikovsky dedicated their works, also fueled Bruckner's work. Bruckner sought to escape from an alien, incomprehensible, and often hostile life into his own world - into the pantheistic celebration of nature, religion, and the simplicity of peasant life. Therefore, in his work, the artist turned to Upper Austrian folklore, to ancient layers of folk song, to chorale, while the urban element was completely alien to him. At the same time, he, perhaps without wanting it, heard modernity, and then pages appeared in his music that foreshadowed Mahler, and sometimes even Shostakovich.

Bruckner's symphonic work continues the line of Austrian symphonism, which began with Schubert. What they have in common is the widespread use of folk song intonations, the soulful embodiment of images of nature, and the contrasts of emotional moods. But Bruckner's symphonies are always monumental, large-scale, rich in polyphony, which gives the music a special grandeur.

All Bruckner symphonies are in four movements. They were created according to the same scheme. The first movements - in sonata form - are strict and serious. There are three main images in them - the theme of the final game acquires independent significance in the exhibition. Deep, concentrated adagios become the lyrical and psychological center of the symphony. Widely expanded scherzos, written in a complex three-part form, are full of folk song and dance turns. The finales are distinguished by their cyclopean size and grandeur of images. Of course, these are only external features. Each of Bruckner's nine symphonies is deeply individual. Due to their grandiose size and bizarre mixture of archaism and innovation, his symphonies were difficult to perceive, which brought the composer many bitter moments.

Anton Bruckner was born on September 4, 1824 in the village of Ansfelden near Linz, in the family of a school teacher. Extremely receptive, he lived in an ancient city, the surroundings of which were picturesque and contributed to the development in the boy of admiration for the beauty and grandeur of nature.

The school teacher's range of knowledge included music - an indispensable mastery of many instruments and the fundamentals of theoretical disciplines. He was supposed to accompany the church service by playing the organ. So the father of the future composer was quite good at this instrument, even improvising on it. In addition, he was an indispensable participant in local celebrations, during which he played the violin, cello, and clarinet. In order to explain to the modern reader the situation in which a school teacher was at the same time a church musician, it must be recalled: in German-speaking countries, primary schools had to not only teach the basics of practical knowledge, skills and abilities, but also instruct in the Holy Scriptures and prepare choristers - boys who participated in the service. Therefore, the school teacher certainly had a musical education and, albeit on a smaller scale, gave it to his students. This created the basis for the flourishing of musical art.

The “father of the symphony” Haydn received his initial education from such a school teacher. Schubert's father was such a schoolteacher, preparing his son for the same field. In essence, such a school teacher, only of an immeasurably higher rank, was in his time Bach - the cantor of the Leipzig Thomas Church, the head of the Thomas Schule - a school at the church. In all cases, be it the huge city of Leipzig or the small village, the schoolmaster was one of the most respected citizens. True, in poor towns teachers lived poorly, if not beggarly, but their position was considered honorable, and children, as a rule, followed in their footsteps, inheriting their father’s place.

So, the boy grew up in an atmosphere of music, eagerly absorbed the folk melodies sounding around him, quickly learned to play the spinet and a small violin, from the age of ten he sang in the school choir, sometimes replacing his father at the organ. Seeing his son's abilities, his father sent him in 1835 to study organ professionally. In a year and a half, the boy made enormous progress - not only learned to play the organ, but also became acquainted with theory, and diligently mastered harmony and counterpoint. Unfortunately, the training that had begun so successfully was interrupted: the father, who had lost his health, was forced to call on a twelve-year-old boy to help with his many duties.

In 1837, Bruckner Sr. died, leaving a widow with five children. Already in August, Anton was enrolled in the so-called public school at the monastery of Sant Florian. Here he continued his music studies - playing the organ, clavier, violin - and he received a comprehensive general education. After completing the course at the monastery school, Bruckner, who could not imagine a different path in life than the one his father had gone through, went to Linz for a preparatory course to obtain the title of assistant teacher. In August 1841, he passed his final exam with flying colors and was sent to work in a small village in Upper Austria.

His day was filled with responsibilities that brought me a meager income, which was barely enough to eat, but his love for teaching and his students helped the young assistant teacher overcome life's difficulties. He soon gained popularity, especially among music lovers. True, the peasants found his organ improvisations too complex and incomprehensible. Bruckner spent many hours studying the works of Bach and also found time to compose his own music. Gradually, his boss began to notice that this was distracting his assistant from his immediate responsibilities. Their relationship became tense and soon led to Bruckner leaving his place, and the monastery authorities transferred him to another village, with a higher salary. Now he had the opportunity to help his mother, who was in poverty with her younger children. In addition, his new boss was sympathetic to the young man’s musical pursuits and tried to provide every opportunity for this.

In June 1845, Bruckner passed the tests for the title of head teacher and received a place in the monastery school. Now his position was strengthened, he could devote himself entirely to teaching and music. He had a magnificent organ at his disposal, and he continued daily exercises in organ playing, improvisation, counterpoint, and traveled to neighboring cities, where he listened to a lot of different music. He himself composed little: his gift as a composer had not yet fully awakened - Bruckner was a late-developing person. True, his creative portfolio already includes choirs, songs, cantatas, organ preludes and fugues. Using the excellent monastery library, he carefully studies the scores of ancient masters. Music occupies an increasingly important place in Bruckner's life. Seeing his extraordinary abilities, in 1848 he was appointed “temporary” organist of the monastery, and three years later he received the status of permanent organist.

There was one more feature in the life of Austria in those years. If its capital Vienna was, naturally, a completely modern city, then in the provinces life continued to flow in the same way as a century ago, and Bruckner’s position in the monastery was not much different from Haydn, the conductor of Prince Esterhazy, completely dependent on his master, or Mozart, an employee of the chapel Bishop of Salzburg. And Bruckner acutely feels his dependence on the monastery authorities, his spiritual loneliness. “There is no person here to whom I could open my heart,” he writes in one of his letters from those years. - And this is very difficult for me. In San Florian they treat music and, therefore, musicians, very indifferently. Here I cannot be joyful, cheerful, and I cannot even dream, make any plans... I must constantly write cantatas and all sorts of other things for various festive gatherings, behave like a servant, who only needs to feed on helpfulness and with whom You can be treated as badly as possible..."

Bruckner is trying to find a way out of this situation. But this happened only in 1856: he won the organ competition in Linz and received the position of city organist. That same year he was honored to play in the Salzburg Cathedral to celebrate Mozart's centenary, and two years later he finally became known in Vienna. An article appeared in the capital's newspaper telling about an outstanding organist, an improviser in a free and strict style.

In addition to working in the cathedral, the musician devoted a lot of time and effort to the singing society, in which he became a choirmaster. There he had the opportunity to perform all of his choral works. They were a success. At the first Upper Austrian Singers' Festival in Linz in 1868, the choir's performance of the song "The March of the Germans" accompanied by brass instruments was awarded a prize. (The composer himself considered this work his first mature opus.) The choirmaster’s authority grew so much that boys were brought to him for training even from other countries, in particular, Sweden and Norway.

Bruckner used all his free time for hard homework. He still did not consider himself sufficiently prepared for serious independent creativity. He was almost forty years old when in one of his letters he wrote: “I can’t start compositions, because I have to study. Later, after a few years, I will have the right to compose. But now it’s just school work.” Twice a year the musician traveled to Vienna for two or three weeks, where he took lessons from the famous theorist S. Sechter. Sometimes, to save money, the journey took place along the Danube on rafts: the payment for his labor was not generous, and he had to save every penny.

In 1861, Bruckner passed exams at the Vienna Conservatory in organ playing and theoretical subjects. The famous conductor I. Gerbek, who was present at the exam, noted: “He should have tested us, and not we him.” In the same year, Bruckner turned to another teacher - O. Kitzler, bandmaster of the theater in Linz. The musician took a course in form analysis using the example of Beethoven's works and instrumentation. It was Kitzler who introduced Bruckner to modern music, to the works of Liszt and Wagner. Bruckner was particularly impressed by Wagner's operas, which were performed at the Linz Theater. Bruckner became passionate about this music. To hear “Tristan and Isolde,” he went to Munich, where he met the author of the opera and the conductor who staged it, Hans von Bülow.

Bruckner's first major works written in Linz were three masses and a symphonic overture, which earned Kitzler's approval. The performance in Linz of the First Mass, a monumental work for soloists, choir and orchestra, was a triumph - Bruckner was crowned with a laurel wreath. After this, the composer decides to create a symphony, but it, according to the same Kitzler, “is more of a student’s work, which he did not write with much inspiration.” During 1863–1864 Bruckner wrote another symphony, but he himself remained unsatisfied with it. Later it became known as No. 0. Only in 1865–1866 did the symphony appear, which became the First. So, only in his fifth decade did the composer feel that his apprenticeship was over.

Unfortunately, a difficult period began in Bruckner's life. Back in 1860, his mother, the only truly close person, died. The girl he was in love with rejected his proposal. Hard, sometimes backbreaking work, which was also poorly rewarded, led to severe depression with symptoms of mental illness. Bruckner himself described his condition in a letter to one of his friends: “I had a feeling of complete decline and helplessness - complete exhaustion and extreme irritability! I was in the most terrible condition; I admit this only to you, don’t say a word to anyone. A little more, and I would have become a victim of the disease and died forever ... "In the summer of 1867, the composer was treated at a resort, and even then there was an obsessive desire to count all the objects he encountered - windows of houses, leaves on trees, stars in the sky, cobblestones on the pavement, beads and pearls on the evening dresses of ladies, wallpaper patterns, buttons on the frock coats of people they meet. It seemed to him that he had to bail out the waters of the Danube in order to measure them too!

Only the love of music supports the composer. He hopes that his new symphony, which later became the First, will receive recognition in Linz and win him friends. But these hopes were not destined to come true. The premiere of the First Symphony, held on May 9, 1868 in Linz, was unsuccessful. This was another major blow for him. An exacerbation of the disease followed. In letters to I. Gerbek, who once gave an excellent review on an exam and then became a faithful friend, he wrote: “I am completely abandoned and secluded from the whole world.<…>I sincerely ask you to save me, otherwise I’m lost!” The unfortunate man had fantastic projects: change his profession and become a scribe, or move to Mexico, “or somewhere else, if they don’t want to know us at home.” He felt that it was necessary to radically change his life.

Salvation came unexpectedly. His former teacher Sechter died in Vienna. Before his death, he named Bruckner as his most worthy successor. Gerbeck, who had significant influence in musical circles, also worked for Bruckner. Bruckner did not immediately agree to the move: the capital frightened him, and his constant self-doubt with his illness intensified even more. In addition, the salary that was offered to him was too small for a decent life in the capital. He no longer wanted to endure the constant need in which the best years of his life had passed, and he put forward his own conditions. They were accepted, and on June 6, 1868, Bruckner became a teacher of counterpoint and harmony at the conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music. Three years later he received the title of professor. Considering himself insufficiently educated, the modest musician by nature, already a professor, listened for a semester at the university to lectures on the history of music from E. Hanslick, one of the largest musical authorities in Vienna. In 1875, he was invited to lecture on harmony and counterpoint at the University of Vienna, and at one time he also taught at the Teachers' Institute of St. Anna, and, in addition, became the organist of the imperial court chapel, where at first he performed his duties for free. At first, teaching gave him many bitter moments. Thus, his immediate superior, L. Zellner, a specialist in musical acoustics and organ, realizing that Bruckner would become a dangerous competitor for him, humiliated him in every possible way, publicly asserted that he was “not an organist” and advised, instead of composing to anyone unnecessary symphonies, it’s better to take up piano transcriptions of other people’s music.

Having moved to Vienna, Bruckner found himself in a world that was sharply different from the one to which he was accustomed. Vienna was one of the largest cultural centers in Europe, and the elderly musician, who came from the outback, had great difficulty adapting to new realities. Just at this time, a fierce controversy broke out between fans of Wagner’s innovative operatic work and the Brahmsians (they were mockingly called “Brahmins”), who preferred non-program music in the classical tradition, of which Brahms was the brightest representative in those years. He took no part in the controversy and calmly went his own way, but passions flared up around these two names. His most ardent supporter was the same Hanslick, the author of the book “On the Musically Beautiful,” whose lectures Bruckner diligently attended. He once welcomed the appearance of Bruckner's music. After listening to his First Symphony, Hanslick wrote: “If the report that Bruckner studied at the Vienna Conservatory is correct, then we can only congratulate this educational institution.” But now, completely unexpectedly for himself, the composer, who sincerely and innocently admired Wagner, became the subject of fierce attacks by the famous critic.

This was all the more unfair since Bruckner himself worked in precisely the field that Hanslick welcomed - in the genre of non-program symphony. But, of course, Wagner’s innovative achievements in the field of harmony and instrumentation could not be ignored by the musicians of his time. They also influenced Bruckner. By the way, Wagner treated him very kindly. Even during Bruckner's stay in Linz, he entrusted him with the rehearsals of the choral scenes in Die Meistersinger, staged at the Linz Theater, and later received him in Bayreuth at his villa Wahnfried.

The composer suffered greatly from caustic and unfair criticism, but was principled in matters of creativity: “They want me to write differently. I could, but I don’t want to.” However, shy, with a soft character, he could not oppose anything to his cruel persecutor and was openly afraid of him. It is known that when one of the Viennese newspapers decided to write an article about Bruckner and turned to him for the facts of his biography, he begged the reporter: “Just please do not blame Hanslick because of me, since his anger is terrible. He is capable of destroying a person; it is impossible to fight him.” There is an anecdote that when the emperor asked him, a venerable composer, what he would like to receive as the highest favor, the poor fellow replied: “Your Majesty, make Hanslick stop scolding me...”

Bruckner was just as naive and simple-minded both in his personal life and in everyday life. Many anecdotes have been told about his teaching, although they all have a tinge of admiration and respect. Once a critic attended his lecture and was amazed to see that the audience greeted the professor with thunderous applause as he entered. “He is always greeted like this,” the students, who loved their mentor very much, explained to him. The beginning of the lecture was no less remarkable. “A woman just accosted me in the hallway,” Bruckner said. “She greatly admires my compositions and had to see me at all costs before leaving Vienna.” I answered her: “But I’m not an exhibition object!” But immediately, stopping the fun that was quite natural in this case, he began a lecture, and complete silence reigned. Among the rumors and anecdotes dedicated to Bruckner, there were some quite evil ones. Thus, some argued that he never read anything other than the Holy Scriptures.

Bruckner was a deeply religious man, attended church regularly, took off his hat to those in the clergy, and whispered prayers when he heard the evening gospel. He tried to marry several times, but courted with truly rustic clumsiness and invariably gave his lovers a Bible. It is not surprising that although he made an offer according to all the rules, he was always refused. However, he quickly calmed down. Once, when asked by a friend why he wasn’t getting married, the composer answered with a charming smile: “But I don’t have time, I’m composing the Fourth Symphony.”

He lived very modestly, in an apartment of two small rooms, one of which was occupied by his unmarried sister, who moved to Vienna to manage her brother’s simple household. After her death (in 1870), he hired an elderly housekeeper, who faithfully served the composer until the last days of his life.

Many were surprised by the unique appearance of the musician, who categorically rejected the delights of metropolitan fashion. He was always dressed in a loose black suit with short trousers - so that nothing would interfere with his playing on the organ pedals - a large handkerchief peeked out of his pocket, and a soft hat partly covered his face with its drooping brim. His strong figure, which retained the features of peasant solidity, gave the impression of a peculiar grandeur and aroused respect from unprejudiced or unfamiliar people.

In 1872 the Second Symphony was written. Conductor O. Dessof, who led the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, declared it meaningless and unenforceable. Another famous conductor, G. Richter, a friend of Brahms, although he promoted Wagner’s work, also did not want to have anything to do with Bruckner. “We tried every way to direct Richter’s enthusiasm towards me, but he is afraid of the press,” the composer complained in one of his letters. He eventually conducted the second symphony himself. Members of the Philharmonic Society received it very warmly, but Hanslick, of course, subjected it to severe criticism. Herbeck, having read the article, remarked: “If Brahms had been able to write such a symphony, the hall would have been destroyed by applause.” Bruckner also had to perform the third symphony himself, although he was a poor conductor, which could not but affect the reception. And subsequent symphonies had difficulty making their way onto the symphonic stage. The composer wrote them, one after another, without hope of understanding and success with the public, often without hope of execution. Bruckner’s naive trick didn’t help either: he dedicated all his symphonies to someone, hoping thereby to favorably influence her fate.

Only with the performance of the Seventh Symphony on December 30, 1884, when Bruckner was already sixty years old, did recognition come to him. This was facilitated not only by the greatness and beauty of the work itself, but also by the fact that A. Nikisch, a student of Bruckner, an excellent conductor, conducted his teacher’s symphony with special inspired force. There is finally a turning point in the views of criticism. Some reviews call him a genius. Only Hanslick remains true to himself and calls the Seventh Symphony “unnatural, painful and corrupting.”

Now the best conductors compete for the right to perform Bruckner's symphonies - and not only subsequent ones, but also earlier ones. His music is heard in many European countries. In Amsterdam, Christiania (Oslo), Stuttgart, Dresden, Hamburg and even Cincinnati, Te Deum, written in 1884, is heard. His masses are performed in Hamburg and Bayreuth, and the Seventh Symphony makes a truly triumphant procession through the cities of Europe. But the composer's happiness cannot be complete. His health condition is deteriorating sharply. In 1890, he could not continue teaching and asked for a year's leave from the conservatory. He managed to obtain a pension, and from 1891 his teaching activity ceased. As a sign of his merits, the university's philosophy department awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Finally, he can devote himself completely to creativity. During 1884–1890, he created the Eighth Symphony, but the last, Ninth, was no longer able to be completed: on October 11, 1896, Bruckner was shackled. According to the composer's dying wish, his ashes were transported to the monastery of Sant Florian and buried in the crypt under the organ, at the controls of which Bruckner spent so many years.

Symphony No. 3

Symphony No. 3, D minor (1873)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, strings.

History of creation

Bruckner's third symphony is actually the fifth he wrote. He did not consider the first two worthy of inclusion in the list of his works, and in the literature they are known as No. 0 and No. 00, and the First Symphony began to be called the third in time of writing, C minor, op. 77, created in 1865–1866. During 1871–1872 he worked on the Second Symphony, which was performed in 1873. Then the composer wrote the Third Symphony. During these years, Bruckner lived in Vienna: he was invited to teach theoretical subjects and organ playing at the Vienna Conservatory, and could only compose in the hours free from teaching, which he, however, loved very much.

The symphony began in February and was completed in August in the resort town of Marienbad, where the composer spent his holidays. From there he wrote to Wagner, whom he admired, a letter asking for permission to dedicate a symphony to him, but did not receive an answer. Then Bruckner himself went to Bayreuth, where his idol was at that time, busy building his own opera house. At first, Wagner did not even want to accept a musician unknown to him, who brought with him two plump scores (these were the Second and Third Symphonies), but Bruckner, with his characteristic ingenuous slyness, said: “The Maestro, with his insight, will only have to look at the themes to know that this is the thing.” Wagner, flattered by this statement, took the scores in his hands. Having leafed through the notes, he casually praised the Second Symphony, but when he began looking through the Third Symphony, he became so carried away by the music that he asked permission to keep the notes for himself for a more careful acquaintance. Taking advantage of this, Bruckner asked permission to dedicate the symphony to Wagner. He received the answer the next day, when he again appeared at the Wahnfried Villa. Wagner hugged him tightly and said: “So, dear Bruckner, with dedication - this is quite acceptable. You gave me unusually great pleasure with your work.” “I was so happy for two and a half hours,” Bruckner later commented on the meeting.

Nevertheless, later he revised the symphony twice - in 1876–1877 and in 1889. Initially, in a fit of admiration for Wagner, he used quotes from his operas. In subsequent versions, he abandoned these borrowings, leaving only the leitmotif of a dream from the opera “Valkyrie” in the adagio code.

The premiere of the symphony took place on December 16, 1877 in Vienna. Despite the prejudice of the majority of Viennese musicians against Bruckner, his longtime admirer, conductor I. Gerbeck, included the Third Symphony in the program of one of his concerts. However, on October 28, he died suddenly. Bruckner had to conduct himself, despite the fact that he was far from a first-class conductor. But none of the other conductors wanted to deal with his music: it was considered boring, too long. During the performance of the Third Symphony, the audience defiantly left the hall, and the orchestra members, as soon as they finished the performance, also left. Only a few friends and students remained with the deeply distressed Bruckner, among whom was his enthusiastic admirer, seventeen-year-old Mahler. Among the friends was another admirer of Bruckner’s work, the music publisher Rettig, who immediately offered to publish both the score and voices. This softened the bitterness of failure for the composer. The prominent critic E. Hanslick, who literally pursued Bruckner for many years, wrote in a review of the premiere that the symphony mixes the influences of Beethoven’s Ninth and Wagner’s “Walkyrie,” but at the end “Beethoven falls under the horseshoes of the Valkyries’ horses.”

Only many years later did the Third Symphony receive the recognition it deserved and was performed with great success in many concert halls in Europe.

The third - “New Heroic” - is one of the landmark works of the wonderful symphonist. This is deeply philosophical music, full of thoughts about man, his purpose, his spiritual beauty. Despite the features of kinship with the work of Wagner, the symphony is deeply original, marked by the unique personality of its creator.

Music

The first part begins with a gigantic organ point, against which the main theme emerges - majestic, epic. Its development is reminiscent of the formation of the final theme in Beethoven's Ninth (the similarity is emphasized by the same key - D). At the moment of climax, a new melody appears, consisting of two contrasting parts. Mournful and peaceful sounds answer the menacing exclamations. The second (side) theme is soft, lyrical. These are, in fact, two simultaneously sounding motives, and each has its own characteristic rhythm, its own melodic pattern. Intertwined, they form a new unity. A bright, joyful mood is created. The music grows into a powerful anthem. Naturally, the final theme is included after it - a solemn and strict chorale tune. Development begins gloomily. The action in it unfolds slowly, gradually filling with force, acquiring ever greater scope. The gigantic turn of the struggle leads to the intense dramatic sound of the climactic theme of the main part. This is the tragic climax of the symphony. The reprise returns “under the impression” of the development, in darker, condensed tones. Enlightenment comes only in a side game. In the grandiose coda of the first part, the courageous heroic principle is affirmed.

The second part, the adagio, according to the composer’s biographers, is dedicated to the memory of his mother. In his music, sublime simplicity and severity are combined with refined intonations, as if the music of Haydn and Mozart meets Wagner’s sophisticated melodic turns. These are all three themes underlying the slow movement. The first of them, presented with string instruments, is full of breadth and nobility (the first section of the three-part form). This is sublime lyricism, at first restrained, and then reaching the heights of expressiveness. The second theme, intoned by altos, is more intimate, reverent and reminiscent of a soulful song; the third is a sublime and strict chorale (they form the central section of the form). In the reprise, as a result of the development of the first theme, a pathetic climax is achieved. But gradually a peaceful silence reigns.

The third movement of the symphony is a swift, bright scherzo, as if permeated with sunlight. It also has three images. The first, fiery and whirlwind, is akin to the themes of Beethoven's scherzos, the second is naive and graceful. It's like male and female dances that alternate. In the center of the scherzo - a trio of three-part form - a new dance appears, which is close in character to the second, but even more gentle and poetic, transparent in color - as if after mass dancing a single couple comes to the fore. In the reprise, the general fun is resumed.

The finale returns to the images and collisions of the beginning of the symphony. “Right away” the modified main theme of the first part (trumpet solo) comes in, and its active development continues. New themes also appear: graceful (side), dance, another - melodious, and, finally, sublime chorale (second side theme). “Look, here, in this house, there is a big ball, and nearby, somewhere behind the wall, a great man rests on his deathbed. Such is life, and I wanted to reflect this in the last part of my Third Symphony: the polka conveys the humor and cheerful mood in the world, the chorale conveys the mournful and sad in it,” this is how the composer explained his plan. However, the first, heroic image prevails in the finale. At the junction of development and reprise of the grandiose sonata form, the trumpet fanfare theme from the first movement appears. The coda of the symphony sounds like a song of victory.

Symphony No. 4

Symphony No. 4, E major, Romantic (1874, final ed. 1880)

History of creation

The fourth symphony is one of Bruckner's best creations. Its idea originated in 1873, while the composer was working on the previous symphonic cycle. Then separate sketches appeared. The writing of the symphony took a long time. An excellent organist, Bruckner gave concerts in Berlin, Nancy, Paris, and London in the early seventies. In Paris, he played at Notre-Dame Cathedral, and Saint-Saëns, Frank, Gounod and Aubert heard him and were delighted with his art. However, touring inevitably distracted him and interfered with his creative concentration. In addition, they simply took up time, and Bruckner had little of it: the composer was very busy teaching - he taught classes in all musical theoretical subjects and organ playing at the Vienna Conservatory.

Bruckner could not give up creativity - it was the main and defining thing for him. Moreover, it was truly ascetic. After all, the composer did not receive any royalties for his compositions. It was always possible to fulfill them with great difficulty. He often hired an orchestra with his own money and conducted it himself. Sometimes he even had to copy out the parts himself, since there was not enough money for a copyist - the enormous teaching work was paid more than modestly. In addition to the conservatory, in order to make ends meet, he also had to teach for two hours every day at the university and give private lessons.

Nevertheless, pressing his workday to the limit, Bruckner wrote the first three parts during the first half of 1874. He worked on the finale in August, when he returned for some time to rest to the monastery of Sant Florian, where he had once been an organist. The finale was completed on August 31, after which the composer returned to Vienna. Here the orchestration was completed on November 22.

The composer's life in Vienna was not easy psychologically. It was a time of fierce polemics between the Wagnerians and the Brahmsians, which literally turned into a war in which all means were fair. Conductors also joined this war, refusing to perform Bruckner's works. The main enemy and persecutor of the composer was E. Hanslick, an authoritative critic, author of the book “On the Musically Beautiful,” and an ardent supporter of Brahms. In his reviews he literally destroyed Bruckner, whom he considered a Wagnerian. Therefore, Bruckner dreamed that the premiere of the Fourth Symphony would take place in Berlin. The composer explained his desire to one of his acquaintances, the friendly critic V. Tappert: “For me, staging in Berlin is much more important than in Vienna, because here we are only well received when a piece comes from abroad.” However, the symphony was never performed in its original form. Unfortunately, there were no opportunities for this.

During 1878–1880, the composer reworked it twice, after which on February 20, 1881, its premiere took place in Vienna in the hall of the Society of Friends of Music under the baton of Hans Richter. The conductor's story about this day has been preserved. “For the first time I conducted a symphony by A. Bruckner, then already an elderly man, but as a composer who had not yet enjoyed the respect he deserved: his works were hardly ever performed... When the symphony was finished, Bruckner came up to me. He was beaming with excitement and happiness. I felt him put something in my hand. “Take this,” he said, “and drink a glass of beer to my health.” The simple-minded composer gave the outstanding conductor a thaler! Richter was so moved by this that he could not hold back his tears.

At the end of the 80s, conductor J. Schalk made significant changes to the symphony's score, which, in his opinion, should have made it easier for listeners to understand. However, they significantly distorted the author's intention. In the 30s of the 20th century, the author’s edition was restored, which is considered to this day the only adequate one.

In the Fourth Symphony, the peculiarities of Bruckner's worldview and the characteristic features of his creative nature were most clearly reflected. It is no coincidence that the symphony received the name romantic: it is based on images typical of romantic art - nature, genre, everyday, epic. Many researchers of the composer’s work see in it a programmatic, plot-based approach. So, one of them, T. Helm, even finds a specific plot. In his opinion, in the first part, “dawn rises over the medieval city. The trumpet signals of the city guards sound on the tower, the gates open, and proud knights ride out into the forest. Forest enchantments, birdsong... In the third part (scherzo) there is a picture of a hunt, in the trio there is a round dance during a feast of hunters.” It is curious that although the composer himself never spoke about the presence of a literary program in any of his symphonies, he called the Fourth Romantic and agreed with the possibility of the given interpretation.

Music

The first movement begins with the lightest tremolo of the strings, against which the expressive calls of the horns (the main theme) sound. Music seems to be born from silence. Restrained at first, it gradually blossoms and opens up. The next episode is filled with proud strength. The crossing of actively moving orchestral lines and the combination of two- and three-beat rhythms give it great scope and strength. The lyrical side theme in the melodious sound of the strings, marked by a whimsical rhythm and features of danceability, comes into sharp contrast. From the very beginning, the symphony is dominated by a bright, joyful mood, but as it develops, dramatic, pathetic moments appear, which are replaced by peace and tranquility. The reprise affirms majestic calm and serene joy.

The second movement is remarkable, one of the most impressive pages of Bruckner's music. It is built on the development of two alternating themes and represents a unique sonata form. Accompanied by measured, meager chords emphasizing the rhythm of the march, a concentrated, mournful melody is heard. This is a picture of a funeral procession. Its movement is interrupted by chorale episodes. Simple tunes sound, recreating the flavor of antiquity and the Middle Ages. But sometimes alarming, convulsively sharpened intonations break through them, characteristic of the music of the late 19th century and even anticipating the future century... Further in the andante, heartfelt lyrical episodes, pastoral scenes, and moments of enormous dramatic power appear. The conclusion of the part is gradual removal. One by one the instruments fall silent, everything becomes quiet. In the guarded silence, fragments of the theme are heard for the last time, and finally, only the dry blows of the timpani are heard.

The third movement is a scherzo built on the fanfare intonations of hunting signals. Powerful and cheerful, it gives the impression of a game of giants. The middle section of the complex three-part form is a charming trio in the spirit of the Ländler. This is a bright genre scene that captivates with its naive charm.

The finale opens with a large introduction, which prepares the solemn appearance of the majestic main theme, evoking associations with some of the themes of Wagner's operas. This is an image of the greatness of the universe. The secondary theme of the sonata form is lyrical and spiritual. The finale truly amazes with its abundance of bright, expressive melodies. Here is a reminder of the pantheistic images of the first movement, and of the muted anxiety of the andante, and of the cyclopean fanfares of the scherzo. Calm contemplation gives way to moments of deep drama, bucolic scenes - expressive emotionality, epic paintings - twilight moods. The reprise in its abbreviated form repeats the images of the exposition of the finale. Its code is a life-affirming apotheosis. From the depths, as if ascending from darkness to light, the main theme given in the address rises (at the beginning of the movement the motive was descending). Gradually, everything is illuminated by a dazzlingly shining major key, triumphant fanfares are blown, proclaiming life affirmation.

Symphony No. 5

Symphony No. 5, B-flat major (1875–1878, final ed. 1895)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, strings.

History of creation

In the fall of 1874, Bruckner's already difficult financial situation sharply worsened. Before that, he worked at the University of Vienna, where he taught music theory and an organ class, and at the same time taught at the Teachers' Institute of St. Anna. Now, in connection with the introduction of a new school law, according to which the teacher had the right to work only at the Institute, he had to leave it. The conservative salary was not enough to live on. In one of the composer’s letters, dated February 1875, we read: “My final lot is to diligently make debts, and then end up in a debtor’s prison, enjoying the fruits of my hard work and chanting the stupidity of moving to Vienna (the composer moved to Vienna from Linz, where he took place organist, in 1868. -L. M). I was deprived of my salary of 1000 florins annually... and in return they did not give me anything, not even a scholarship. Now I am not able to give away my Fourth Symphony for correspondence.” In this mood, the very next day the composer began composing the adagio of the Fifth Symphony. Apparently, the mournful nature of the music is directly related to the plight in which Bruckner found himself. He tries to find a way out - he applies for an assistant professorship at the university. However, even Wagner's positive reviews of him did not help matters. Moreover, the all-powerful critic, professor at the University of Vienna E. Hanslick, who fought with all means against Wagner’s music, declared Bruckner, due to his “conspicuous lack of education... completely unsuitable” for teaching at the university. All these circumstances, which made life very difficult, did not destroy the thirst for creativity - it was the main thing for Bruckner, the whole life of a lonely musician was subordinate to him.

The fifth symphony was created by the composer throughout this difficult year. On November 7, it was completed in the clavier, and the next day, despite Hanslick’s opposition, Bruckner was given the right to give courses in harmony and counterpoint free of charge. On November 25, he gave an inaugural lecture, and the students greeted the new teacher who appeared at the department with an ovation.

Meanwhile, work on the symphony continued. On May 16, 1876, its orchestration was completed. The composer himself defined the work he wrote as “fantastic,” which his first biographer disagrees with, considering the name “tragic” to be more appropriate, since all the complex life collisions of the time of creation certainly affected the content of the symphonic cycle.

That summer, Bruckner was invited by Wagner to the grand opening of the theater in Bayreuth and attended the rehearsals and premiere of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”. Upon his return, he began to rework the Fifth Symphony and completed its second edition by the end of 1876. However, this option did not satisfy him either - throughout 1877–1878 the composer carried out a new edition. By this time, he was given the title of full member of the court chapel with a payment of 800 guilders per year. Finally, he can work calmly, without thinking about the impending need. However, the change in position does not affect the fate of the essays in any way. Nobody undertakes to perform the fifth symphony. It was performed only after the triumph of the Seventh Symphony, after the composer was finally recognized, on April 8, 1894 in Graz under the baton of F. Schalk, who made significant changes to the score. The performance was a huge success. Bruckner, already seriously ill, was unable to attend this premiere.

In 1895, when his health improved somewhat, he decided to rework the symphony again, mainly the orchestration. The second edition of the symphony was completed in 1895. Already in the 20th century, the author's edition was published, which is now considered the only adequate one.

The Fifth Symphony is one of Bruckner's most ambitious and complex works. Her music is full of contrasts, figuratively multifaceted. The warlike, solemn and choral melodies characteristic of all symphonies of the Austrian composer sound especially convincing in it. Next to them are episodes of amazing, heartfelt lyrics and subtle psychologism.

Music

The first part begins with a slow introduction. Measured, barely audible pizzicato of low strings, against which a strict chorale melody appears, and then fanfare unisons and a decisive dotted theme prepare the beginning of the sonata allegro. His main part is strong-willed, impetuous and courageous, complemented by a short motive in which notes of melancholy and anxiety suddenly appear. The side party is restrained, with archaic features. The third image of the movement is rudely good-natured unisons (final part). The grandiose polyphonic development amazes with contrapuntal mastery. Even the composer himself, distinguished by his amazing modesty, once deservedly called it a “contrapuntal masterpiece.” Melodies, familiar from the introduction and exposition, sound simultaneously in their original form, in circulation, in rhythmic compression, in stretted execution. The gigantic development is resolved by a highly dramatic climax.

The second part - adagio - is the semantic center of the symphony. It is no coincidence that Bruckner began working on the work with him. The music is concentrated and mournful, full of enormous internal tension, and is distinguished by amazing beauty. The movement is based on two themes (its form is a two-theme rondo). The first is harsh, having a peculiar melodic pattern with moves on tart-sounding intervals - sevenths. Its two-beat rhythm is freely superimposed on the swaying three-beat accompaniment, giving this a special flavor to the music. The second theme is a broad melodic melody of an epic-narrative nature.

The third movement is a scherzo, written in a complex three-part form, in which the outer sections - sonata allegro - are marked by a special sharpness of intonation, sharp contrasts, and anxiety that permeates it from beginning to end. The danceability usual for the scherzo becomes mechanical, and the song melodies lose the spontaneity and lyricism usual for Bruckner. The music foreshadows the grotesque episodes of Mahler's symphonies. Two themes from the previous part are woven into its movement in a slightly modified form. It’s as if the most sacred, the most valuable suddenly turns into a grotesque.

The finale begins with reminiscences from the previous parts. The melody of the slow introduction sounds, then the main theme of the sonata allegro of the first movement. It is followed by the first theme of the adagio, one of the melodies of the scherzo. Only after this do the themes of the finale proper begin - the impulsive main one, the flexible secondary one and the final statement filled with pathos. The development is a gigantic double fugue, the unfolding of which is combined with effective motivic development. The symphony ends with the jubilant sound of a colossal orchestral tutti.

Symphony No. 6

Symphony No. 6, A major (1881)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, strings.

History of creation

The composer began creating the Sixth Symphony in September 1879 and worked on it for two years. During his work, in August and September 1880, Bruckner visited Switzerland, where he performed as an organist in Zurich, Geneva, Freiburg, Bern, Lucerne and other cities, invariably causing delight among listeners.

He visited the town of Oberammergau, where he saw the famous performance of “The Passion” - an ancient folk mystery; he also visited Chamonix, where a magnificent view of Mont Blanc opens up: seeing the highest peak of Europe was the composer’s long-standing dream. Upon returning to Vienna, he began his usual studies - teaching at the conservatory and university, and devoted all his free hours to composing the Sixth Symphony, which he himself called “the bravest.” Perhaps summer impressions were reflected in it, since this work is a glorification of the beauty and grandeur of the universe. Some German researchers define the symphony as a “song of praise to the beauty of the earth” and, when compared with Beethoven’s Sixth, “Pastoral” Symphony, it is also called pastoral.

The bright, optimistic outlook, one must think, was facilitated by the fact that the beginning of 1881 brought a joyful and long-awaited event - on the recommendation of Wagner, who was sympathetic to Bruckner’s work, the famous conductor G. Richter performed the Fourth Symphony in February, which was highly praised by critics and was was received triumphantly by the public. In February 1883, the two middle movements of the Sixth Symphony were performed in Vienna, which the public also received very warmly. Even Hanslick did not come out with a devastating article, as always. However, the composer was able to hear this creation in full only during a rehearsal. Its public performance took place only after the death of the composer, on February 26, 1899, under the baton of Mahler.

In the composer's work, the Sixth Symphony opens up new paths in many ways. “The Sixth Symphony reflects the moods and thoughts of a deeply and subtly feeling personality... It seems as if a tired Schubert traveler is walking through the pages of this work, heading towards the deep upheavals of Mahler’s music,” we read in one of the domestic studies.

The Sixth is the composer's next romantic symphony after the Fourth. It is dominated by lyrical moods, although there are majestic themes, heroic and fantastic episodes, traditional for Bruckner.

Music

At the beginning of the first movement, characteristic dotted rhythms and fanfare exclamations appear, acquiring a solemn and majestic character. But very soon, preventing heroic images from developing, lyrical intonations arise, full of expression. The music of the side part sounds elegiac and, at the same time, deeply moving, like a sincere confession. The middle - development - section is short in length, in which the secondary theme acquires enormous internal tension and becomes more collected, concentrated, leading to a powerful climax - the affirmation of the majestic melody of the main part. The coda of the first part has a bright, triumphant character.

The second part is an amazingly beautiful adagio, full of drama. The beginning of the part unfolds in three plans. The lower one is a measured and calmly sad movement of string basses; middle - wide, sing-song melody of violins; the top one is an excited and at the same time full of melancholy recitation of the oboe. And then the adagio is dominated by falling, sinking motifs, unstable harmonies, leading to the appearance of the rhythmic intonations of a funeral march. Such images, which are generally unusual for the slow movements of Bruckner’s symphonies, directly lead to the internally intense, full of emotional explosiveness of Mahler’s lyrics.

The third movement is a scherzo, fantastically whimsical and virtuosic. It is based on fanfare cries, the warlike sound of brass, and the ghostly flickering of string passages. The music, as if filled with the reflection of German folk tales, also paints pictures of nature - the dance of elves on a moonlit night, bird calls (woodwind tunes).

The finale of the symphony concentrates in itself all the most important thematic themes of the previous movements. Here there is a broad lyrical melody with a smooth falling movement, and frantic brass fanfares. The middle section of the finale - development - is small, very unstable, fluid, as if full of dissatisfaction. The conclusion of the symphony is decided in a lyrical and dramatic vein. Only the last bars sound like a solemn statement.

Symphony No. 7

Symphony No. 7, E major (1883)

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 4 tenor tubas, bass tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, strings.

History of creation

The Seventh Symphony was created over the years 1881–1883. On July 26, 1882, in Bayreuth, where Wagner lived during these years, his last meeting took place with Bruckner, who admired the genius of the great opera reformer. Bruckner was hospitably received at the Wahnfried Villa and attended the premiere of Parsifal, the maestro’s last opera. The music of Parsifal made such an impression on the exalted Austrian composer that he knelt before its creator.

Wagner, in turn, highly appreciated Bruckner's work, promised him to perform all of his symphonies. This was a colossal joy for the composer, who was not at all spoiled by attention - his music was not recognized, considered too learned, long and formless. Critics, especially the then all-powerful E. Hanslick, literally destroyed Bruckner. Therefore, one can imagine what a joy Wagner’s promise was for him. Perhaps this was reflected in the music of the first movement, filled with radiant joy.

However, this noble plan was not destined to come true. In the midst of work on the second part of the symphony, the adagio, on February 14, 1883, coming to classes at the conservatory as usual, Bruckner learned of Wagner’s death. The composer dedicated this adagio to his memory - one of the most amazing in depth and beauty. His experiences are captured in this amazing music, the last few dozen bars of which were written immediately after receiving the tragic news. “I reached this point when a dispatch from Venice arrived, and then for the first time I composed truly mournful music in memory of the master,” Bruckner wrote in one of his letters. In the summer, the composer went to Bayreuth to venerate the grave of the man whom he revered so deeply (Wagner is buried in the park of the Villa Wahnfried). The composer completed the seventh symphony on September 5, 1883. At first, the musicians did not accept it, like all previous Bruckner symphonies. Only after detailed explanations from the author regarding the form of the finale did conductor G. Levy risk performing it.

The premiere of the symphony took place on December 30, 1884 in Leipzig under the baton of Arthur Nikisch and was received quite controversially, although some critics wrote that Bruckner towers above other composers as a giant. Only after the performance of the Seventh in Munich under the baton of Levi did Bruckner become a triumphant man. The symphony was enthusiastically greeted by the audience. In the press one could read that its author was comparable to Beethoven himself. The triumphal march of the symphony across the symphonic stages of Europe began. Thus came the belated recognition of Bruckner as a composer.

Music

The first movement begins with Bruckner's favorite technique - a barely audible string tremolo. Against its background, a melody sounds, flowing widely and freely from cellos and violas, capturing a huge range in its chant - the main theme of the sonata allegro. It is interesting that, according to the composer, it appeared to him in a dream - he dreamed that a friend came from Linz and dictated the melody, adding: “Remember, this theme will bring you happiness!” The side performance of oboe and clarinet, accompanied by shimmering chords of horns and trumpet, is fragile and transparent, subtly changeable, imbued with the spirit of romantic quests, leading to the appearance of the third image (the final part) - folk dance, imbued with elemental power. In development, calm at first, the color gradually thickens, a struggle ensues, and a gigantic wave of pressure occurs, capturing the reprise. The result is summed up only in the coda, where the main theme is established in the jubilant sound of bright fanfares.

The second part is unique. This mournful and at the same time courageous music is one of the deepest and most soulful adagios in the world, the greatest rise of Bruckner's genius. The two themes of the adagio are completely limitless in extent. They amaze with the broadest breath. The first one sounds mournful and concentrated first from a quartet of tenor, otherwise called Wagnerian, tubas, then it is picked up and sung by strings, the melody rises higher and higher, reaches a climax and falls. The second theme enters, affectionate, as if soothing, consoling in grief. If the first one was four-beat, in the rhythm of a slow march, now it is replaced by a smooth waltz movement. Music takes you to a dream world. These themes alternate again, creating the form of a two-theme rondo. From severe sorrow, the music gradually moves to light sadness, peace, and then an ecstatic climax in bright C major, affirming the transformed first theme. But it’s as if a dark curtain suddenly falls: a quintet of tubas sounds darkly, like an epitaph to Wagner. The theme quoted by the composer from his “Te Deum”, completed in the same year as the Seventh, unfolds mournfully - the mournful melody “Non confundar”. The exclamations of the horns sound like bursting sobs. But in the last bars of the movement, the first theme sounds enlightened - like reconciliation with loss.

The third movement is a powerful scherzo like Beethoven, permeated with bright fanfares and the rhythms of fiery mass dance. The endless whirling figuration of the strings resembles a fantastic round dance. It is cut through by the call of a trumpet - laconic, rhythmically clear. According to the composer, its prototype was the crow of a rooster. The music seems to be full of exuberant fun. But this is not joy - the fun is ominous, a satanic grin seems to be in it. The trio is transparent, easily serene, idyllic. The unpretentious song melody is led by violins, surrounded by transparent echoes, replaced by the playing of woodwinds. Everything is imbued with purity, freshness, chastity. The reprise of the three-part form falls in a rapid torrent, returning to the images of the beginning of the scherzo.

The first, main theme of the bright, heroic finale is a modification of the theme of the first part. Here, in the sound of violins, accompanied by a continuous tremolo, it takes on the features of an energetic march. The secondary one is a restrained chorale, also in the violins, accompanied by pizzicato bass. This is also a march, but slowed down - more like a procession. The final theme, in which the intonations of the main theme are transformed, is powerful and proud. Now the whole orchestra sounds in ponderous unisons. These three images are intertwined and develop in a gigantic development, in which a terrible, intense struggle takes place, like a struggle between good and evil, between hellish forces and the forces of angelic armies. In the reprise, the three main themes are played in reverse order, leading to a vibrant, triumphant climax in the coda. The opening theme of the symphony merges here with the main theme of the finale. The march, the movement of which permeated the entire finale, becomes a joyful, enthusiastic hymn.

Symphony No. 8

Symphony No. 8, C minor (1884–1890)

Orchestra composition: 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 8 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 4 tenor tubas, bass tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, harps (three if possible), strings.

History of creation

In 1884, Bruckner modestly celebrated his sixtieth birthday. It was a time of vacation, a break from intense teaching work, and the composer spent it in the town of Voecklabruck with his married sister. There he began composing a new Eighth Symphony. For about a year, only sketches were created, which were completed in August of the following year. The year 1885 was marked by growing recognition of Bruckner. Previously not only unrecognized, but also persecuted by hostile criticism, now he is finally reaping the success he deserves. His Third Symphony is performed in The Hague, Dresden, Frankfurt, and New York. His Quintet is performed in several cities; on May 8, at a concert of the Wagner Society, the premiere of “Te Deum” is held under the direction of the author; Bruckner considered it his best composition. True, it had to be performed with a piano - there was not enough money for the orchestra. The orchestral premiere took place on January 10, 1886 under the direction of G. Richter and aroused the delight of the public and approving reviews from critics, who had previously been very strict with the composer. Over the following months, the triumphal march around the world of the Seventh Symphony continued. All this could not but affect Bruckner’s mood. Despite the enormous teaching load, he worked on the score of the Eighth Symphony. The grandiose symphonic work, designed to last a whole evening, was completed in August 1887. The composer informs conductor G. Levy in a letter dated September 4: “Finally, the Eighth is completed...” However, Levy, having familiarized himself with the score, considered the symphony unperformable and proposed to significantly shorten it. Bruckner experienced the recall of his “father in art,” as he called Levy, very painfully. Nevertheless, in 1889–1890 he returned to the symphony, indeed shortening it somewhat, and wrote a new coda to the first movement.

The premiere of the symphony took place on December 18, 1892 at the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of G. Richter. It was such a success that fans of the composer declared it “the crown of music of the 19th century.”

The sick author was present in the hall, although the doctors were very reluctant to allow this, fearing a strong nervous strain. He was happy - his labors, worries and worries were fully rewarded. After each movement a storm of applause broke out (at that time it was customary to applaud not only after the end of a cyclic work). Only the famous critic E. Hanslick, who pursued the composer all his life, remained true to himself and left the hall after listening to three movements. But this could not prevent the general triumph. Composer G. Wolf in his review called the Eighth “a work of titanium, surpassing in its spiritual scale and grandeur all other Bruckner symphonies.”

Contemporaries called the Eighth Symphony “Tragic”. For the premiere, one of the composer’s friends, pianist and music critic J. Schalk, wrote a literary program in which he explained that the meaning of the symphony is the struggle for culture and the highest ideals of humanity. He considered Prometheus to be its hero, and his image is depicted in the first part, in the second he indulges in fun and relaxation, in the third he appears as the bearer of the divine principle, in connection with the Almighty. The ending shows the end of his fight for humanity. Other critics also saw the symphony as an image of Faust.

The composer was quite surprised by such interpretations. Some of Bruckner's statements about the content of music have been preserved. So, the first part, according to him, is the proclamation of death, accepted with humility. Judging by the words “German Michel” written in his hand on the scherzo score, in this part he, in any case, imagined not Prometheus or Faust at all, but a good-natured, simple-minded, slightly naive, but in his own mind, German peasant - in fact, that’s what he was and himself. The composer said about the scherzo trio: “Michel sits comfortably on the top of the mountain and dreams, looking at the country.” Perhaps this is how Bruckner’s impressions from his trip to Switzerland were refracted? Or is it his favorite Austrian landscape? Regarding the music of the adagio, with his characteristic crude humor, the composer said: “Then I looked too deeply into the eyes of one girl.” Having fallen unsuccessfully in love several times and remaining a bachelor until old age, Bruckner was inspired by a late (again unsuccessful) love, which made it possible to embody in sounds not only earthly feelings, but also admiration for the beauty and greatness of the world.

About the finale, he said, perhaps not without guile, that its content was the meeting near Olmütz (now Olomouc) of the Austrian, German and Russian emperors in September 1884: at the beginning of the finale “strings - a Cossack race; copper - military music; trumpets - fanfares at the moment of the meeting...” Of course, one cannot accept these author’s explanations with complete confidence. At best, these are indirect clues to understanding the intent.

The Eighth Symphony is a grandiose romantic concept based on the typical collision of romantic artists between the brutal power and tranquility of the eternal beauty of the universe and the lonely person lost in it. The tragedy of an unequal struggle, the simple-minded emotions of a naive person, enthusiastic admiration for the greatness of the cosmos, heroism, and enormous emotional intensity are combined in the music of the symphony with deep seriousness and philosophical profundity.

Music

The first part, based on the development of three musical images, is a broadly conceived picture of a person’s collision with overwhelming forces (“fate” or “fate” by Tchaikovsky). The first of the main images is the main party - the voice of a powerful, harsh and inexorable fate. This is a theme that appears in the low register of the strings, consisting of short, rhythmically sharpened motives. The second time it is performed in powerful unisons of brass instruments, it sounds especially menacing, leaving no hope. The side part (second image) - melodious, plastic, imbued with sincerity, a typically Brucknerian “endless” melody of the violins, which is picked up by the woodwinds and then the brass, embodies consolation, hope: it is an island of peace and light. The third image (the final part) is a theme that emerges from the interplay between horns and woodwind instruments, sometimes angry, sometimes pleading, sometimes demanding and rebellious. A terrible struggle breaks out in the development; acute dramatic moments alternate with short visions of the desired peace, frantic fights drain strength. Sorrowful, gloomy colors only occasionally give way to more enlightened ones. Waves of intense development spill over into the reprise. Only at the end does the struggle stop, and dramatic clashes give way to submission to fate. There is evidence that while finishing recording the coda, Bruckner said: “Thus the clock of death strikes.”

The second part - the scherzo - in the general concept of the symphony is interlude in nature, creating a contrast to the preceding and subsequent parts in mood and musical material. It takes you into the world of naive fantasy and good-natured, slightly rude humor, which, however, is not without a hint of hidden anxiety. Its colors are rich and bright. The light tremolo of the violins creates a ghostly-fantastic flavor and takes you into a fairy-tale world. But the rough, even slightly clumsy sound of the Ländler theme in the bass strings is somewhat reminiscent of the “German Michel” with his solidity and strong gait. The middle section of the complex three-part form - the trio - is filled with affectionate dreaminess, pastoralism and makes one recall similar episodes of Haydn's music. This is a picture of alpine nature, admiration for the beauty of God's creation.

The third movement is a sublime adagio, imbued with philosophical pathos, solemn in its sound splendor. It belongs to the most beautiful pages of this genre, in depth of feeling and nobility of expression approaching the slow movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Two main themes define its development. The first, sounded by the violins, embodies a hidden prayer, a passion that is hidden at first, but breaks through with irresistible force at the climax. It ends with sublime choral chords dissolving into transparent harp arpeggios. The second - in the soulful singing of the cellos - seems to radiate the light of hope; in it one can hear a lyrical confession, poetic delight. These two images are developed in a double three-part form throughout the adagio. Bruckner reveals with exceptional completeness the expressive possibilities hidden in these musical themes. In the adagio coda, the music gradually fades into peace and tranquility.

The finale of the symphony, also written in sonata form, is the last stage in the struggle for the affirmation of life. Its main theme consists of three powerful melodic waves assigned to brass. A secondary theme is of a choral nature, thoughtfully contemplative in the expressive intonation of the horns. Finally, the marching final theme, evoking the image of a mass procession, finally confirms the heroic nature of the finale. The development, based on these main themes, creates a picture of a struggle that flares up and then subsides and is replete with complex polyphonic techniques. It leads to the general climax: the reprise sounds powerfully, heralding victory, but its final statement occurs in the coda - a grandiose, sounding apotheosis, in which the composer, in a dazzlingly bright C major, united the main themes of all four parts of the symphony in the mighty sound of the orchestra's tutti.

Symphony No. 9

Symphony No. 9, (1891–1894)

Orchestra composition: 3 flutes, 3 oboes, 3 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 8 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 tenor tubas, 2 bass tubas, double bass tuba, timpani, strings.

History of creation

Bruckner worked on his last symphony while already seriously ill. He knew that this was his swan song. It took him three years to write the first three movements of the symphony. On the title pages of the score of each movement, he meticulously noted the dates: “First movement: end of April 1891 - October 14, 1892 - December 23, 1893.” "Scherzo: February 17, 1893-February 15, 1894." “Adagio: October 31, 1894 - November 30, 1894. Vienna. Dr. A. Bruckner."

It was a time of late, but complete and unconditional recognition. After many years when his symphonies were considered boring, formless and unplayable, after many years of persecution by critics, his music finally conquered the whole world. But fame came too late. The old composer suffered from loss of strength and chronic colds. A long-standing mental disorder was worsening, forcing him to count all the objects he saw - windows of houses, leaves on trees, cobblestones on the road. Back in 1891, he abandoned teaching, to which he devoted several decades of his life and which for many years was essentially the only source of material resources. Now he had an honorary state pension, and royalties from numerous performances of his music.

A sharp deterioration in health occurred in 1892. In the summer he visited for the last time the grave of Wagner, whom he revered, in the park of the Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth; listened to “Tannhäuser” and “Parsifal” at the Wagner theater. There he was overtaken by a severe attack, which doctors determined to be a heart attack. Dropsy began. My hands began to tremble, my once exemplary calligraphic handwriting became slurred, and it was painfully difficult to write the score. Nevertheless, while his hand was still holding the pen, the composer worked: it is known that on the morning of the last day of his life he was still writing in bed!

Sketches of the finale of the Ninth Symphony survive, showing that it was conceived on a grandiose scale, with a fugue and chorale. But Bruckner was not destined to complete the final. Death interrupted his work. Anticipating this, the composer recommended performing “Te Deum” instead of the last movement. Worried that his friends would edit the score after his death (this had already happened before, in particular with the Fourth and Fifth symphonies, in which changes were made that completely distorted the original author's intention), Bruckner handed over the three written parts to the Berlin conductor K. Muck, explaining , which does this so that “nothing happens” to the symphony.

Even unfinished, the symphony amazes with the grandeur of its design and makes a strong impression. The wish to end it with “Te Deum” is not fulfilled, since the majestic adagio quite convincingly completes the monumental cycle. The premiere of the Ninth took place on February 11, 1903 in Vienna under the direction of F. Lewe and was a huge success. Scholars of Bruckner's work have defined it as "Gothic". True, as the author feared, the conductor slightly changed the orchestration. Subsequently, the author's version was restored.

Music

The first movement begins “solemnly, mysteriously” (author’s note) with sustained tones of woodwinds that sound simultaneously with the quiet tremolo of the strings. A majestic opening theme appears, as if being created before our eyes - from the depths in the unisons of strings and winds, it is born in the sound of eight horns. A new, more powerful build-up leads to the appearance of the main theme, angular, with sharp jumps and sharp accents. “It resembles a zigzag of lightning or the blows of a giant hammer on an anvil,” writes one of the domestic researchers about it. She is answered by the melodious, affectionate and soft melody of the violins - a side part. She is impetuous and elusive, like a vision. But gradually it becomes more earthly, humane, and develops into an enthusiastic impulse. The third and final part is harsh in its marching rhythm, filled with some kind of fanatical strength and inflexibility. The fanfare melody of the horns brings it closer to the main part, but the quart echoes of strings and wooden instruments give it an ascetic character. The brief development is like the extended beginning of a symphony. It releases the forces contained in the opening theme. The struggle intensifies to the limit, leading to a breakdown. At the huge climax, the dynamic reprise begins with a tragic fortissimo sound of the main part. It contains even more powerful climaxes and breakdowns, heights and abysses. The wind chorales sound hopeless, indicating spiritual collapse. But the code still contains the strength for the last decisive breakthrough - all the will is gathered, the proud, indestructible main theme is revived.

In the second part there is a scherzo - a world of whimsical, fantastic images and visions. The measured rhythm of sharp chords of pizzicato strings accompanies fancifully broken dancing melodies, they are replaced by frantic tuttite sounds. There is airy lightness and sarcasm here, you can see will-o’-the-wisps of the forest, or gloomy ghosts, and here and there a satanic grin flashes. A lyrical island briefly appears - a gentle melody of the oboe, evoking associations with a peaceful Austrian landscape (this is a secondary theme of the sonata form, forming the outer sections of a gigantic complex three-part form). In the trio, other images emerge. A light, delightful dance sounds: maybe it’s elves dancing in the moonlight, maybe snowflakes are spinning in an endless round dance. The second theme of the trio is a soulful, beautiful melody of violins, full of tenderness. But these captivating images disappear, giving way to the original grotesque.

The Adagio, which turned out to be the last part of the unfinished symphony, is concentrated, serious, and philosophically significant. This is a unique result of the composer’s work, about which the outstanding musical figure of the 30s I. Sollertinsky said: “Bruckner is a true philosopher of adagio, in this area he has no equal in all post-Beethoven music.” The third movement is based on two themes (two-theme rondo). The first - in a broad presentation of violins - recalls in its intonations the pathetic themes of the first movement. Her character is solemnly majestic, full of significance, as if reflecting on the deepest and most important questions of life. It is complemented by tenor tubas, accompanied by a high, as if soaring tremolo of the strings, with their sublime chorale. The second theme, similar to the initial part of the symphony, is lighter, more fragile, with a tinge of sadness - like a memory of past bright moments. The wide, sing-song melody of the violins, entwined with the lace of woodwind echoes, gives way to an epic choir of brass instruments. Repeating themselves, both themes are subject to various modifications. After the climax, with its jubilant ringing of bells, as if symbolizing the composer’s farewell to life, a choral episode from his mass sounds. Then the theme of the adagio of the Eighth Symphony appears, the fanfare from the Fourth, the main theme of the Seventh... The adagio ends lightly and peacefully.

Bruckner is not yet a well-known great symphonist of the Wagnerian era. Occasional and rare performances of individual works of his are not capable of facilitating the penetration of his music into our musical environment, especially since he is one of those composers whose acquaintance cannot be fleeting and transient, while a thorough mastery of his music requires leisure and attention. However, the music of Brahms, Bruckner’s contemporary and rival, was equally slow to seep into our concert programs, but time has taken its toll and now few people shy away from Brahms’ works.
The life of a modest and reserved composer like Bruckner was very simple. He was born on September 4, 1824 in Ansfelden (Upper Austria). He was the son of a school teacher. As a boy, he sang in the choir and at the same time studied at one of the church institutions, like a seminary - St. Floriana. There he later became an organist. In 1856, through a competition, he took the same position in Linz. Working a lot on his own, Bruckner created himself into a first-class organist and contrapuntist. Nevertheless, in the sixties he continued to study technique with Sechter in Vienna, after whose death he took his place as court organist and was invited as professor of organ playing, harmony, counterpoint and the practice of musical composition at the Vienna Conservatory
(1867). From 1875 he was a lecturer in music at the University of Vienna. He traveled widely as an organist and improviser in his homeland and abroad. He wrote his First Symphony in 1865. In his aspirations, Bruckner gravitated toward the progressive trends of his era, mainly Wagner.
Bruckner's Seventh Symphony in E major is one of the most famous and beloved in Europe among his nine symphonies. For entering the world of the composer's ideas, for the first acquaintance with his music - elementally majestic - this symphony is extremely suitable: its rich melody, plasticity of themes and clarity of development of thoughts attract an unprejudiced listener and call for further penetration into the free creativity of a wonderful, profound musician. The symphony was completed in 1883. Her first three performances: in Leipzig (1884, Ikisch), in Munich (1885, Levi) and in Vienna (1886, Richter) created her popularity. It turned out to be almost the first of Bruckner's symphonies that forced musicians and the public to pay due attention to the great composer.

The best movements of the Seventh Symphony are the first and second (the famous Adagio). In the first movement, from the first bars - from the presentation of the melodically rich main theme - to the end, the music does not lose for a moment its beautiful and convincing fullness of expression, its clarity. Lyrical pathos, seriousness, noble melodiousness and a sincere warm tone constitute the inherently valuable qualities of the slow movement of the symphony. Bruckner always excels with his Adagios. True, in our busy and nervously hasty times it is not easy to focus attention on their free and completely leisurely step, but anyone who would like to penetrate this world of inexhaustible music, which does not know feeble-mindedness and thrifty consideration, will not lose their leisure time in vain. Bruckner, like Schubert, managed to connect the innocence and naivety of the lyrical narrative with the seriousness of the music, and the involuntary melodic flow with the organic nature of creativity as a whole, so that the most seemingly ingenuous and simple thought is born, grows and fades away always as a phase, as a series of states or manifestations of some kind of unity, and does not feel like a randomly run-in or lonely tortured melody. Just like Schubert, Bruckner combines lyrical intimacy with deep insight, sensitivity and humanity, thanks to which his lyrics lose the imprint of personal arbitrariness and invention and become necessary and useful to everyone. In a word, Bruckner does not have that unhealthy bias that makes modern musicians turn away from any acutely subjective emotionality.

In his music, the voice of sincere feeling sings and a romantically spontaneous, bright and noble emotional tone sounds. This property now attracts to him, as well as to Schubert, many people whose perception of life, it would seem, does not correspond to such “slow” music. Modernity, however, prefers the epic-emotional structure of the symphonism of Schubert and Bruckner to the sensual violence of Wagnerism. As a wise thinker, Bruckner does not force the will of others and does not suppress the imagination with sensual images, but as a romantic, he deeply feels the voice of feeling and, loving Wagner, often immerses himself in the atmosphere of the latter’s music, purifying and enlightening it. General words about Bruckner’s slavish dependence on Wagner must be left aside. They don't explain anything. In the end, Mozart also “depended” on the Italians in his time.
The scherzos of Bruckner's symphonies, being saturated with Viennese dance rhythms and the idyllic lyrics of Viennese folk genre scenes, have much in common with Schubert's scherzos, but in the development of basic ideas they sometimes come into contact with Beethoven's. Following the intense first movement and deeply contemplative Adagio, Bruckner's scherzos somewhat lose their meaning, for they seem too simple in form after such intense music. This should be kept in mind when perceiving them.
As for Brookier's finales, almost each of them provides a new and always interesting solution to the problem of the end or completion of a lyrical-epic symphony. They also amaze with the generosity of their music and the freedom of their creative imagination. Their lack is in the breadth of their design and the boundlessness of their imagination, which interferes with the concentration of thoughts. In addition, when perceiving Bruckner’s monumental symphonies, the listeners’ attention to the finale is already so tired that it is difficult to follow the composer and remember the entire course of “events”, connecting all parts of the symphony stage by stage and combining them with the magnificently unfolding final “movement”. Of course, this kind of deficiency does not at all detract from the value of the music itself. The finale of the Seventh Symphony, in this regard, turns out to be quite easy to comprehend and embrace, worthily closing and uniting the entire symphonic action.

Bruckner's Eighth Symphony (C minor) 59 was completed in 1886. This work, gigantic in scope and depth of thinking, is saturated from beginning to end with bright and rich music, which reflects an intense sense of life and a wealth of emotional experiences. The four parts of the symphony are four phases of soundoid development, four life stages. The drama and sternly passionate pathos of the first movement is tempered by the whimsically moving play of chiaroscuro and the tender lyrics of the scherzo trio. The center of the symphony is the Adagio, the most beautiful in its nobility and tenderness of feeling. It stands out even among the wonderful slow movements of Bruckner's other symphonies for its fiery melodiousness. The ending is a colossal concept; by the nature of the music, it contains a solemn, majestic procession and an ecstatic powerful hymn, worthily completing and uniting all previous development. Overall, this is a proud, courageously heroic work, boldly and powerfully asserting its place in the world of ideas. The difficulty of perceiving the Eighth Symphony lies in the breadth of its plans, the heaviness of its presentation and the length of the sound stream. But at the same time, the clarity and plasticity of themes, the calm alternation of thoughts, the dismemberment (even overly emphasized) of movement and the leisurely pace of all the music facilitate its assimilation, if not as a whole, then gradually, step by step from one stage to another, forward to the finale , which is constructed in such a way that it truly is the pinnacle of the ascent and connects in a grandiose scope everything that is felt and experienced during the symphony. A struggle, a round dance of ideas, a passionate soulful song and an enthusiastic hymn - along this path, the listener’s consciousness experiences diverse and deep shocks, submitting to the emotions instilled in the music by the will of the great composer, the intensity of emotions and the power of whose creative imagination is difficult to even imagine. In this symphony, the range of Bruckner’s feelings is striking: the most tender tenderness of melodic themes and the lyricism of moods, it would seem, the limit of touching life in an intimate and contemplative plane is only one sphere of Bruckner’s symphony, and the other pole, no less intensely exciting, is healthy, proudly militant, self-confident music of power and strength, two principles that ensure the right to life and victory over everything that interferes with it. Both spheres are embodied with equal conviction. And when you leaf through the score of the symphony, you want to reduce its entire meaning, all the shades of movement and dynamics to two: calm and restraint in strength and boundless tenderness in affection.

Bruckner's importance is increasing more and more. The literature about him is becoming more interesting and deeper. The best proof of this is the latest major work of Ernst Kurt. A series of musical festivals dedicated to Bruckner in 1920, 1921 and 1924, cyclical performances of all his symphonies, and new editions of his works contributed and continue to contribute to the popularity of his music in Germany and Austria.
Thus, the 20th century makes amends for the great injustice done to Bruckner by his contemporaries during his lifetime. No wonder. Living at the same time as Wagner and Brahms, the modest Bruckner, in essence, stood ahead of both of them. He was more relevant than Brahms in his understanding and implementation of Viennese classicism, and wiser than Wagner in his symphonic construction and in his sublime worldview and contemplation.

It is extensive - it contains over one hundred and twenty titles. Among them are many sacred works that the composer created in connection with his official duties in St. Florian and Linz. But he also wrote them out of conviction, since he was a believer, devoted to the tenets of Catholicism. Bruckner also has secular cantatas, choirs, and solo songs. He dedicated only one composition, the string quintet in F major (1879), to the chamber instrumental genre. Central to his legacy are nine monumental symphonies.

Bruckner developed his own, original symphonic concept, which he strictly adhered to in his nine works, despite the fact that he endowed them with different content. This is a clear indicator of the integrity of the composer’s creative personality.

Brought up in the conditions of the patriarchal way of provincial life, Bruckner with all his being denied the bourgeois culture of the capitalist city - he did not understand and did not accept it. Individualistic doubts, emotional strain, skepticism, mockery, and grotesquery are completely alien to him, as well as the painful sharpness of intellectual disputes and utopian dreams (This, in particular, is the fundamental difference between Bruckner and Mahler, whose work has very strong urban motifs.). His worldview is fundamentally pantheistic. He sings of the greatness of the universe, tries to penetrate into the mysterious essence of existence; violent impulses for happiness alternate with humble renunciation, and passive contemplation gives way to ecstatic jubilation.

This content of the music was partly determined by Bruckner's religious views. But it would be wrong to reduce everything to the reactionary influence of Catholicism. After all, the artist’s worldview is determined not only by the political or philosophical teachings to which he is committed, but by the entire experience of his life and work. This experience is rooted in Bruckner’s communication with the people (primarily the peasantry), with the life and nature of Austria. That is why his music exudes such powerful health. Outwardly withdrawn, not interested in politics, theater, or literature, he at the same time had a sense of modernity and, in his own way, reacted romantically to the contradictions of reality. Therefore, the power of his titanic impulses was uniquely combined with the sophistication of the imagination of the composer of the late 19th century.

Bruckner's symphonies are gigantic epics, as if carved from a monolithic block. However, monolithicity does not exclude contrast. Quite the opposite: the extremes of sentiment are aggravated to the limit, but each of them is extensively exhibited, consistently and dynamically developed. There is a logic to such a pile-up and change of images - this is the logic epic a narrative whose measured structure seems to explode from within with flashes of insight, dramatic clashes, and widely deployed lyrical scenes.

The structure of Bruckner's music is sublime, pathetic; the influence of folk traditions is less noticeable than in Schubert. Rather, an analogy with Wagner, who avoided depicting the everyday, the ordinary, suggests itself. Such a desire is generally characteristic of artists of an epic nature (unlike, say, Brahms, whose symphonies can be called lyrical dramas); hence the “spreading” of presentation, oratorical verbosity, and the contrast in the juxtaposition of large sections of form in Bruckner.

The rhapsodic nature of the statement, which ultimately comes from the style of organ improvisations, Bruckner tries to restrain with a strict adherence to symmetrical structures (structures of simple or double tripartite, forms based on the principles of framing, etc.). But within these sections, the music develops freely, impulsively, with “big breath.” An example is the symphonic Adagio - wonderful examples of Bruckner's courageous lyrics:

Thematicism is the strong point of Bruckner's music. Unlike Brahms, for whom a short motif served as a source of further development, Bruckner is a master sculptor of long-term thematic formations. They acquire additional, counterpointing motifs and, without losing figurative integrity, fill large sections of the form.

Bruckner uses three such main sections as the basis for the exposition of the sonata form (along with the main and secondary parts, the final part in Bruckner forms an independent section). The opening of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony made an indelible impression on him, and in most of his symphonies Bruckner prepares the proud cry of the main theme with the shimmering sound of a tonic triad; Often such themes, being transformed, become solemn and hymnical:

The second group of themes (side part) forms a lyrical section, similar in nature to the first, but more direct, songlike. The third group is a new contrast: dance or marching rhythms and intonations burst in, which, however, acquire a threatening, sometimes demonic quality; These are the leading themes of the scherzo - they potentially contain enormous dynamics; Powerful unisons are also often used in ostinato movement:

These three areas contain the most specific images of Bruckner's music; in various versions they form the content of his symphonies. Before turning to their dramaturgy, let us briefly describe the musical language and some of the composer’s favorite expressive techniques.

The melodic principle is clearly revealed in Bruckner's music. But the intonation and rhythmic pattern is complex, the main melody is overgrown with counterpoints, which help create a continuous fluidity of movement. This manner brings Bruckner closer to Wagner, although the connection with Austrian folk song is not broken.

And in harmony, Liszt-Wagnerian influences are observed: it is mobile, which is due to its “branchy” structure.

In general, melody and harmony develop in close interaction. Therefore, while using bold modulations and tonal deviations in distant tunings, Bruckner at the same time has no predilection for complex dissonant combinations and loves to “listen” for a long time to the sound of simple triads. However, the musical fabric of his works is often cumbersome and heavily overloaded; this is caused by the abundance of contrapuntal layers - it is not for nothing that he was famous as an expert in “strict writing”, the laws of which he studied with such diligence under the guidance of Sechter!

Bruckner's orchestral style is marked by great originality. Of course, here too the achievements of Liszt and Wagner were taken into account, but, using some of their techniques, he did not lose his original individuality. Its originality lay in the fact that from his youth until his last days Bruckner remained faithful to his favorite instrument - the organ. He improvised at the organ, and in the spirit of free improvisation his symphonic frescoes were born. In the same way, the orchestra seemed to him in the form of a monumental ideal organ. It was the organ sonority with its unmixed register timbres that determined Bruckner’s penchant for the separate use of the main groups of the orchestra, for a powerful but clear-colored tutti, for the involvement of brass instruments in the hymnical conduct of the melody, for the interpretation of solo voices, woodwinds, etc. And Bruckner sometimes brought the string group closer to the sound of the corresponding organ registers. So, he willingly used the tremolo (see example 84 a, b), melodic pizzicato in the bass, etc.

But starting from the organ, from the special techniques of its registration, Bruckner still thought orchestrally. This is probably why he did not leave any significant pieces for his favorite instrument, because in order to realize the epic plans that overwhelmed him, a certain ideal organ was required, which is what an orchestra with many sounds, powerful in dynamics, and varied in colors is. It was to him that Bruckner dedicated his best creations.

His symphonies are in four movements. Each part in the cycle performs a specific figurative and semantic function.

The lyrical center of the cycle is Adagio. Often its duration is much longer than the first movement (for example, in the Eighth Symphony it has 304 bars!) and contains the most sincere, deep, heartfelt pages of Bruckner’s music. In contrast, elemental forces rage in the scherzo (the prototype is the scherzo of Beethoven's Ninth); their demonic impulse is set off by an idyllic trio, with echoes of the ländler or waltz. The extreme movements (sometimes the Adagio) are written in sonata form and are full of acute conflict. But if the first is presented more compactly, with a laconic development, then in the finale the architectural harmony is disrupted: Bruckner sought to summarize the entire content of the work and often drew on themes from other parts for this.

The problem of the finale - generally one of the most difficult in the ideological and artistic solution of a symphonic cycle - was difficult for Bruckner. He interpreted it as the dramatic center of the symphony (Mahler followed him in this) with its constant result - glorification in the code of joy and light of being. But the heterogeneity of images, the huge range of feelings did not lend themselves to purposeful presentation, which often gave rise to looseness of form and kaleidoscopic change of episodes. Feeling this shortcoming, he reworked his compositions several times, listening with his characteristic modesty to the advice of friendly conductors. Thus, his students I. Schalk and F. Löwe, wanting to bring Bruckner’s creations closer to modern perception, made many changes to their scores, especially to the instrumentation, during the composer’s lifetime. These changes, however, distorted the original style of Bruckner's symphonies; Nowadays they are performed in the author's original version.

Anton Bruckner: Symphony 7. To the 189th anniversary of the great composer.

Tannhäuser: Today, on the birthday of the Great Austrian composer, I offer another, perhaps his best symphony... The Seventh... From the first minutes it completely captures the listener and does not let go until the end of the last movement... And it plays for more than an hour.. .But whoever loves symphonic music receives the greatest pleasure from this creation...I listen to the Seventh all the time...More often - in sad minutes, hours, days...Music adds a little lightness to thoughts and feelings even in the most difficult moments of life... I know...

Below are texts with a brief biography of the composer and a description of the features of one of his symphonic masterpieces. See you later...

Orchestra composition: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, 4 tenor tubas, bass tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, strings.

History of creation

The Seventh Symphony was created during the years 1881-1883. On July 26, 1882, in Bayreuth, where Wagner lived during these years, his last meeting took place with Bruckner, who admired the genius of the great opera reformer. Bruckner was hospitably received at the Wahnfried Villa and attended the premiere of Parsifal, the maestro’s last opera.

The music of Parsifal made such an impression on the exalted Austrian composer that he knelt before its creator. Wagner, in turn, highly appreciated Bruckner's work, promised him to perform all of his symphonies. This was a colossal joy for the composer, who was not at all spoiled by attention - his music was not recognized, considered too learned, long and formless. Critics, especially the then all-powerful E. Hanslick, literally destroyed Bruckner. Therefore, one can imagine what a joy Wagner’s promise was for him. Perhaps this was reflected in the music of the first movement, filled with radiant joy.

However, this noble plan was not destined to come true. In the midst of work on the second part of the symphony, the adagio, on February 14, 1883, coming to classes at the conservatory as usual, Bruckner learned of Wagner’s death. The composer dedicated this adagio to his memory - one of the most amazing in depth and beauty. His experiences are captured in this amazing music, the last few dozen bars of which were written immediately after receiving the tragic news. “I reached this point when a dispatch arrived from Venice, and then for the first time I composed truly mournful music in memory of the master,” Bruckner wrote in one of his letters. In the summer, the composer went to Bayreuth to venerate the grave of the man whom he revered so deeply (Wagner is buried in the park of the Villa Wahnfried).

The composer completed the seventh symphony on September 5, 1883. At first, the musicians did not accept it, like all previous Bruckner symphonies. Only after detailed explanations from the author regarding the form of the finale did conductor G. Levy risk performing it.

The premiere of the symphony took place on December 30, 1884 in Leipzig under the baton of Arthur Nikisch and was received quite controversially, although some critics wrote that Bruckner towers above other composers as a giant. Only after the performance of the Seventh in Munich under the baton of Levi did Bruckner become a triumphant man. The symphony was enthusiastically greeted by the audience. In the press one could read that its author was comparable to Beethoven himself. The triumphal march of the symphony across the symphonic stages of Europe began. Thus came the belated recognition of Bruckner as a composer.

Music

The first movement begins with Bruckner's favorite technique - a barely audible string tremolo. Against its background, a melody sounds, flowing widely and freely from cellos and violas, capturing a huge range in its chant - the main theme of the sonata allegro.

It is interesting that, according to the composer, it appeared to him in a dream - he dreamed that a friend came from Linz and dictated the melody, adding: “Remember, this theme will bring you happiness!” The side performance of oboe and clarinet, accompanied by shimmering chords of horns and trumpet, is fragile and transparent, subtly changeable, imbued with the spirit of romantic quests, leading to the appearance of the third image (the final part) - folk dance, imbued with elemental power. In development, calm at first, the color gradually thickens, a struggle ensues, and a gigantic wave of pressure occurs, capturing the reprise. The result is summed up only in the coda, where the main theme is established in the jubilant sound of bright fanfares.

The second part is unique. This mournful and at the same time courageous music is one of the deepest and most soulful adagios in the world, the greatest rise of Bruckner’s genius.

The two themes of the adagio are completely limitless in extent. They amaze with the broadest breath. The first one sounds mournful and concentrated first from a quartet of tenor, otherwise called Wagnerian, tubas, then it is picked up and sung by strings, the melody rises higher and higher, reaches a climax and falls. The second theme enters, affectionate, as if soothing, consoling in grief. If the first one was four-beat, in the rhythm of a slow march, now it is replaced by a smooth waltz movement. Music takes you to a dream world. These themes alternate again, creating the form of a two-theme rondo. From severe sorrow, the music gradually moves to light sadness, peace, and then an ecstatic climax in bright C major, affirming the transformed first theme. But it’s as if a dark curtain suddenly falls: a quintet of tubas sounds darkly, like an epitaph to Wagner. The theme quoted by the composer from his “Te Deum”, completed in the same year as the Seventh, unfolds mournfully - the mournful melody “Non confiindar”. The exclamations of the horns sound like bursting sobs. But in the last bars of the movement, the first theme sounds enlightened - like reconciliation with loss.

M. Čiurlionis "Scherzo"

The third movement is a powerful scherzo like Beethoven, permeated with bright fanfares and the rhythms of fiery mass dance. The endless whirling figuration of the strings resembles a fantastic round dance. It is cut through by the call of a trumpet - laconic, rhythmically clear. According to the composer, its prototype was the crow of a rooster. The music seems to be full of exuberant fun. But this is not joy - the fun is ominous, it seems like a satanic grin. The trio is transparent, easily serene, idyllic. The unpretentious song melody is led by violins, surrounded by transparent echoes, replaced by the playing of woodwinds. Everything is imbued with purity, freshness, chastity. The reprise of the three-part form falls in a rapid stream, returning to the images of the beginning of the scherzo.

The first, main theme of the bright, heroic finale is a modification of the theme of the first part. Here, in the sound of violins, accompanied by a continuous tremolo, it takes on the features of an energetic march. The secondary one is a restrained chorale, also in the violins, accompanied by pizzicato bass. This is also a march, but slowed down - more like a procession. The final theme, in which the intonations of the main theme are transformed, is powerful and proud. Now the whole orchestra sounds in ponderous unisons.

These three images are intertwined and develop in a gigantic development, in which a terrible, intense struggle takes place, like a struggle between good and evil, between hellish forces and the forces of angelic armies. In the reprise, the three main themes are played in reverse order, leading to a vibrant, triumphant climax in the coda. The opening theme of the symphony merges here with the main theme of the finale. The march, the movement of which permeated the entire finale, becomes a joyful, enthusiastic hymn.

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“I know only one who comes close to Beethoven, and that is Bruckner.” The words spoken by Richard Wagner in 1882 were perceived as a paradox: Bruckner, on the threshold of his 60th birthday, the author of “strange”, “huge” symphonies (almost never performed), was perceived by his contemporaries as a shy, simple-minded eccentric with naive views. Only years later, after A. Nikisch's triumphant performance of the Seventh Symphony, did Bruckner gain widespread recognition.

The name of Anton Bruckner is well known to music lovers all over the world. An outstanding Austrian composer, organist and teacher, he lived a difficult life, receiving well-deserved recognition only in his later years. Bruckner's symphonies, created in the last thirty years of his life and waiting for a long time for their performance, had a significant influence on the development of European symphony in the 19th century. Today they have entered the golden fund of world symphonic literature and have become an adornment of the repertoire of the best orchestras in the world.

He was born in a small Austrian village, studied at a monastery teacher's school, in his youth served for a long time as a village school teacher, then received the position of organist - first in a monastery, then, finally, in the cathedral of the small town of Linz. All these years he continuously studied, improving as an organist, diligently studying the secrets of the composer's craft.

In 1868, the First Symphony and one of the masses, created shortly before, were successfully performed in Linz. Finally, his old dream came true - he left the province and moved to Vienna (at that time he was forty-five years old). The most fruitful and, at the same time, the most bleak time of his life began. One after another, his grandiose symphonies were born - from the Second to the Ninth, but they were not in demand by the public. The Second and Third Symphonies were performed relatively quickly; but the Second was only unsuccessful, and the Third failed. From now on, any conductor risked including Bruckner's works in his concert programs. The composer had to wait for years, or even decades, for the performance of his symphonies, and he never heard some of them - for example, the Fifth.

In Vienna he is a stranger, and remained alone until the end of his days. No close friends, no sensitive and devoted interpreters, no reliable patrons, no faithful students. Only a small handful of fans - representatives of musical youth - from whom, in essence, little could change in the fate of him and his works.

Fame and recognition came to him, but, alas, too late. In 1881, Hans Richter successfully performed the Fourth Symphony (it is still one of Bruckner's most repertoire symphonies). Then followed - mostly foreign (Vienna is still deaf to him) - performances of others: the Third, the Seventh...

The last two symphonies - the Eighth and Ninth, Bruckner's most monumental works - were created at a time of rapidly approaching old age. He was no longer able to finish the ninth - for the last two years he had been working on the finale, and this work was interrupted by death.

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Part 48 -
Part 49 - Anton Bruckner: Symphony 7. To the 189th anniversary of the great composer.