Anton Bruckner: Bruckner 2024 “The Complete Versions Edition” – Symphony No. 1 (1891)

Anton Bruckner finally received the award of an honorary doctorate from the University of Vienna on 11 December 1891. For Bruckner, receiving the doctorate fulfilled a long-time wish, since he had spent most of his life pursuing academic credentials and applied for honorary doctorates at Cambridge University in 1882 and at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Cincinnati in 1885. Two days later, Hans Richter conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in the first performance of the second or so-called ‘Vienna’ version of Bruckner’s First Symphony, which he had dedicated to the university in gratitude for the degree. The changes Bruckner made in this revised version are not as extensive as those he made to the Third, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies during the late 1880s and early 1890s. His revisions to the First Symphony did not affect the overall form of any of the movements. He changed many details of orchestration, articulation and phrase length, some of which are difficult to notice on first hearing. Nevertheless, the 1891 autograph score is the composer’s final word on how he wanted his First Symphony to be performed and understood.