 T
H E S
Y M P H O N I E S |
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| SYMPHONY No. 1 IN C MINOR | |
| 'Linz
Version' (1866) edited by Leopold Nowak (1953) 3,2,2,2-4,2,3,0-Timp-Str / 48' |
|
| B 1/1-STP | Study score ISMN 979-0-50025-000-5 |
| B 1/1-DIR | Conductor's score ISMN 979-0-50025-164-4 * Performance material for hire |
 Bruckner
later dubbed his First Symphony 'das kecke Beserl' (Austrian slang, roughly
'brazen little minx'), aptly capturing the high-spirited aspects of the work,
which was composed shoulder-to-shoulder with the three great masses. The
audience at the first performance, conducted by Bruckner in Linz in 1868,
were amazed at the wealth of unprecedented musical material, but their reaction
was generally positive. Until Robert Haas published the 'Linz Version' in
1935 in the old Bruckner Complete Edition, later generations only knew the
First in Bruckner's revision of 1890/91.It is a fact that Anton Bruckner composed a number of his works several times over; the First, the Second, the Third, the Fourth and the Eighth all exist in two or even three fundamentally different manuscript scores, and it is not just a matter of 'different readings' or 'improvements' made to individual passages (which could after all be incorporated into a critical report), but rather of quite independent treatments and developments of what is in most cases the same thematic material. |
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| Adagio
(original version of 1865/66, fragment) Scherzo (earlier composition of 1865) edited by Wolfgang Grandjean (1995) |
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| B 1/1A-STP | Study score with critical report ISMN 979-0-50025-069-2 |
 Bruckner
at first conceived the slow movement of the First in classical sonata form
with development, but for the Linz version he finally decided in favour
of a three-part structure with an elaborately composed middle section.  The autograph of the original Adagio (now in the Music Collection of the
Austrian National Library), still without trumpets or trombones, breaks
off at bar 154 in the recapitulation of the second subject. One sheet of
the score still exists from the close of the movement (from bar 12 of the
recapitulation of the second subject) using trumpets and trombones, thus
representing a transitional stage between the original Adagio and that
of the Linz version.
The last score page of the first Scherzo and Trio is inscribed 'München 25. Mai 1865' – at the time Bruckner was in Munich for the first performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. For the Linz version he wrote a completely new Scherzo, but kept the Trio unchanged. |
|
| 'Vienna
Version' (1890/91) edited by Günter Brosche (1980) 3,2,2,2-4,2,3,0-Timp-Str / 50' |
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| B 1/2-STP | Study score (revised edition 1994) ISMN 979-0-50025-001-2 |
| B 1/2-DIR | Conductor's score ISMN 979-0-50025-175-0 * Performance material for hire |
| On November 7 1891, Bruckner was awarded an honorary doctorate of the University of Vienna. He clearly set great store by this honour paid to his work 'as a symphonist'; in gratitude he dedicated his First Symphony, which he had finished revising some months before quite independently of the honorary doctorate, to the University Senate. | |
| B 1-RVB |  Critical
report by Thomas Röder on all versions.ISBN 978-3-900270-84-1 / ISMN 979-0-50025-258-0 in preparation |
| Furthermore, published by Doblinger: | |
| Adagio, original version
of 1865/66, fragment, completed for performance by Wolfgang Grandjean; Scherzo, earlier composition 1865, edited by Wolfgang Grandjean. 3,2,2,2-4,0,0,0-Timp-Str |
|
| 74 014 | Score / Parts |
For
performance purposes, the missing bars of the original slow movement of
the First Symphony have been filled in by Wolfgang Grandjean using the
corresponding musical material from the Linz version. Performance material
for this preliminary
Adagio and for the Scherzo which Bruckner later rejected (together with
the Trio) are available from Doblinger. | |