Inspired by Anton Bruckner

Symphonic music would never be the same again after Bruckner’s death in 1896. Composers from Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius to Hans Rott and Arnold Bax were seduced by the huge gravitational pull of his symphonies’ cosmic ambitions, slow-burn intensity, and pioneering orchestrations. Throughout this deep-dive playlist, you’ll hear myriad Brucknerian influences—the tremolo strings and piercing brass of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Symphony No. 3, the climactic rises and falls of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7, the cinematic grandeur of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 5.