Posted by Warren Malach on June 20, 19102 at 14:38:19:

In Reply to: Re: The FINEST Bruckner 6th posted by Ara A. on June 19, 19102 at 22:47:03:

Ara, I never thought that you implied anything of the sort! No doubt many of us are influenced in our appreciation of the music of certain composers by the first composition of theirs which we heard and/or the performance or recording of it. Since I have long had "problems" appreciating Bruckner's Fifth, I am not sure that I would have "stuck with" Bruckner's music if the Fifth Symphony was the first composition of his that I heard! I think, on the other hand, that I would have had a fairly similar reaction to the Romantic Symphony that I had to the Sixth. Because for me Bruckner's earlier Symphonies sound so different than his later ones, I am not sure that I would have appreciated Bruckner's music as much if I had first heard, say, the First Symphony. I should mention that what has always drawn me to Bruckner's music is NOT the architecture, NOT the spiritual quality, but the lyricism, which I see in a line from Schubert to Mahler in what has been termed the "Austrian Song-Symphony." I will not attempt to make any case for Schubert having directly influenced Bruckner's musical development, but rather that I feel a similar effort on the part of both composers to work lyrical themes into the structure of the symphonic form. I will also not attempt to say that this lyrical quality is always present or even was a major factor in the later Symphonies, which I appreciate for some of those other reasons which draw people to Bruckner's music. To be completely inconsistent, I will add that I have never really appreciated the Mes, and much prefer the Motets among the religious choral music, but I wish we had more access to his secular choral music before attempting an opinion regarding that part of his output. --Warren

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