The hour-long Symphony No. 3 in D minor, WAB 103, of Anton Bruckner marked a key step toward the vast symphonic thinking of his later works. It is sometimes known as the "Wagner Symphony" due to some quotations from Wagner's operas that were largely removed in later revisions (including the common 1877 version recorded here), but it is really Beethoven who looms large in its background with the static opening rising over the course of a sprawling hour to a transcendent (although non-choral) finale. The Viennese critic ...
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The hour-long Symphony No. 3 in D minor, WAB 103, of Anton Bruckner marked a key step toward the vast symphonic thinking of his later works. It is sometimes known as the "Wagner Symphony" due to some quotations from Wagner's operas that were largely removed in later revisions (including the common 1877 version recorded here), but it is really Beethoven who looms large in its background with the static opening rising over the course of a sprawling hour to a transcendent (although non-choral) finale. The Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick suggested that the work might have been envisioned as "Beethoven's Ninth becoming friendly with Wagner's Valkyries and finishing up being trampled under their hooves"; he was being rude, but he grasped the work in spite of himself. Listeners have their choice of many readings, but this one has much to recommend it. Released in 2021, it follows just three years later on a recording by conductor Christian Thielemann with his Staatskapelle Dresden on DVD, and it must be said...
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