He added that he also stresses the works of these favorite masters on tour, especially Mahler's First and Fourth symphonies, and Das Lied Von der Erde, and Bruckner's Sixth -- which is rarely played -- and Seventh.

His works, the symphonies in particular, had detractors, most notably the influential Austrian critic Eduard Hanslick, and other supporters of Johannes Brahms ( and detractors of Wagner ), who pointed to their large size, use of repetition, and Bruckner's propensity to revise many of his works, often with the assistance of colleagues, and his apparent indecision about which versions he preferred.

Unlike his romantic symphonies, some of Bruckner's choral works are often conservative and contrapuntal in style ; however, the Te Deum, Helgoland, Psalm 150 and at least one Mass demonstrate innovative and radical uses of chromaticism.

With the exception of Symphony No. 4, none of Bruckner's symphonies has subtitles, and most of the nicknames were not thought up by the composer.

In a concert review, Bernard Holland described parts of the first movements of Bruckner's sixth and seventh symphonies as follows: " There is the same slow, broad introduction, the drawn-out climaxes that grow, pull back and then grow some more – a sort of musical coitus interruptus.

Symphony No. 7 in E major was the most beloved of Bruckner's symphonies with audiences of the time, and is still popular.

Perhaps the most important recordings the orchestra made were with conductor Bruno Walter, who recorded highly regarded interpretations of Beethoven's, Brahms's, Bruckner's, Mahler's and Mozart's symphonies.

One of his specialties was the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, and Van Beinum made commercial recordings with the orchestra of Bruckner's Eighth and Ninth Symphonies for the Philips Records.

Admired orchestral records include Debussy's La mer and Nocturnes, Dvořák's 9th Symphony and Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Brahms's 4th Symphony and Mahler's 1st and 9th symphonies with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven's 3rd and 5th Symphonies, and Schumann's 3rd Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Brahms's four Symphonies, Bruckner's 7th, 8th and 9th symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic, and Dvořák's 7th and 9th Symphonies with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam.

Still, according to his New York Times obituary, he said in a 1983 interview, " Today, everyone thinks of me as a specialist in Bruckner's symphonies.

He conducted a wide range of music ( sacred music from Heinrich Schütz to Max Reger, as well as the symphonic and concerto repertoire of the Classical and Romantic period, including Bruckner's symphonies ) but he is best remembered for his interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach's and Handel's music.

With them, he was the first to record the original versions of several of Anton Bruckner's symphonies, for which he won the Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplatten-Kritik.

He also remade Bruckner's symphonies 3 to 9.

The highlights of Wand's late career were his annual guest appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which he conducted in Schubert's " Unfinished " and " Great " symphonies ( 1995 ) and Bruckner's Fifth ( 1996 ), Fourth ( 1998 ), Ninth ( 1998 ), Seventh ( 1999 ) and Eighth ( 2001 ) symphonies.

Although some have argued that the work falls within the tradition of other C minor " tragedy to triumph " symphonies, such as Beethoven's Fifth, Brahms ' First, Bruckner's Eighth, and Mahler's Second, there is considerable disagreement over the level of optimism present in the final pages.

Between 1935 and 1944 Haas published editions of Bruckner's, Sixth ( 1935 ), Fifth ( 1935 ), First ( 1935 ), Fourth ( 1936 and 1944 ), Second, Eighth ( 1939 ) and Seventh ( 1944 ) symphonies.

Scholar Benjamin Korstvedt charges that in the Second, Eighth and Seventh symphonies Haas made changes to Bruckner's musical texts that " went beyond the limits of scholarly responsibility ".

This proved Haas's undoing, as after World War II he was removed from the Bruckner project and replaced by the more scholarly, if less inventive, Leopold Nowak who went on to produce new editions of all Bruckner's symphonies.

The composition of his Fourth Symphony marked the beginning of what some refer to as the " Major Tetralogy ," Bruckner's four symphonies composed in Major keys.

In fact, this tetralogy was part of an entire decade in Bruckner's compositional history devoted to large-scale works written in major keys, a fact of note considering that all of his previous symphonies and foremost choral works were composed in minor keys.

Bruckner's symphonies encompass many techniques but the one unwavering hallmark of his symphonic compositions is a singular formal pattern that underwent very little variation over the course of his symphonic repertory.

Thematically speaking, there are two distinct varieties of themes in Bruckner's symphonies.

Sometimes Bruckner's works are referred to by WAB numbers, from the Werkverzeichnis Anton Bruckner, a catalogue of Bruckner's works edited by Renate Grasberger.

Bruckner's works are trademarked with powerful codas and grand finales, as well as the frequent use of unison passages and orchestral tutti.

The scherzo and slow movement, with their alternation of melodies, are models for Bruckner's spacious middle movements, while the finale with a grand culminating hymn is a feature of almost every Bruckner symphony.

During the time that Bruckner began work on this symphony, he was aware that Wagner's death was imminent, and so the Adagio is slow mournful music for Wagner ( the climax of the movement comes at rehearsal letter W ), and for the first time in Bruckner's oeuvre, Wagner tubas are included in the orchestra.

Korstvedt argues that it was not uncommon for differences to exist between the autograph manuscripts and the first publications of musical works in the late nineteenth century, and that while the discrepancies in Bruckner's case are " unusually pronounced " they are not " essentially aberrant.

In Bruckner's Eighth and Ninth Symphonies, the four Wagner tubas are played by four players who alternate between playing horn and Wagner tuba, which is the same procedure Wagner used in the Ring.

According to Robert Simpson, though not commonly performed and often thought of as the ugly duckling of Bruckner's symphonic body of work, the Sixth Symphony nonetheless makes an immediate impression of rich and individual expressiveness: " Its themes are exceptionally beautiful, its harmony has moments of both boldness and subtlety, its instrumentation is the most imaginative he had yet achieved, and it possesses a mastery of classical form that might even have impressed Brahms.

Other characteristics that are found in Bruckner's symphonies ( specifically the Sixth ) include the extensive treatment of the dominant seventh chord as a German sixth chord in a new key, usage of cadences as a decisive factor in daring modulations, the treatment of organ points as pivotal to the harmony and structure, chains of harmonic sequences, and, most notably, extensive use of rhythmic motives, especially the characteristic Bruckner rhythm, a rhythm consisting of two fourths and a triple of quarter notes or vice versa.

This rhythm dominated most of the Fourth Symphony and was practically nonexistent in the Fifth Symphony but becomes nothing short of a driving force in the Sixth Symphony ; the metric complexities generated by this unique rhythmic grouping are more pronounced in the first movement of the Sixth Symphony than in any of Bruckner's other compositions.

The Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Symphonies represent Bruckner's period of greatest confidence as a composer, and apart from his unfinished Ninth Symphony, they are the only symphonies in which Bruckner did not make extensive revisions.

For all its grandeur, the ending is remarkably concise, and the perorations are more terse than those of, say, Bruckner's own Symphony No. 5 in B flat major.

" The result of such advice was to awaken immediately all the insecurity in the non-musical part of Bruckner's personality ," musicologist Deryck Cooke writes.

Cooke judges all these publications as " spurious " because they " did not represent Bruckner's own intentions ," while Korstvedt classifies them into three categories:

Beginning belligerently ( by Bruckner's standards ), this movement reaches a triumphant conclusion using themes ( or at least rhythmic impressions of these ) from all four movements.

More sketches exist from all phases of work on this symphony than for most of Bruckner's works.

This completion proposes one way to realize Bruckner's intention to combine themes from all four movements.

* Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9, which only contains three complete movements and a draft of the fourth movement.

Another characteristic thematic feature of Bruckner's symphonies is the intimate relationship between the outer two movements, though there is typically more of an emphasis on thematic contrast within the first movement.

The development is shorter and less complex than one usually finds in Bruckner's symphonic first movements ; however, it plays a substantial role in the overall harmonic structure of the movement.

In terms of interpretation, the Sixth Symphony has also been the unluckiest, with the vast majority of conductors ignoring Bruckner's specific tempo markings and throwing off the carefully planned balance of the movements.

The structure and scale of the Adagio as it develops these themes is grander than any of Bruckner's previous slow movements.

Bruckner's love for the grand and majestetic can be heard especially in the first and last movements.