Symphony No. 3 in D Minor

For Bruckner, the Third Symphony was his “Wagner Symphony”, an act of conscious homage to the composer he called “The Master of All Masters”, and he was thrilled when Wagner, impressed by the newly completed score, graciously agreed to accept the dedication. But Wagner did nothing to champion the music, and Bruckner’s confidence in it faltered, especially after the symphony’s catastrophic first performance in Vienna in 1877. The Third has the dubious distinction of being Bruckner’s most revised symphony, and while the final version (1890) is certainly the most concise, for some experts and enthusiasts it is the most structurally ruinous revision he ever made. Bruckner was attempting something highly original: a symphony with something of the expressive and dramatic intensity of Beethoven and Wagner, but conceived against a background that is far more spacious, touching even on timelessness, and it is no wonder that he did not get it right at once. Even so, in all its versions the Third Symphony contains plenty of magnificent music. One can see why it made such an impression on Wagner.