Customer Reviews

Bruckner (Master Musicians)

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Derek Watson is one of the only critics who truly understands Bruckner's art. With his intimate knowledge of Bruckner's style, Watson effectively refutes the erroneous arguments of Bruckner's detractors. This biography is compact, but it covers all the important aspects of Bruckner's life and work. It also contains a complete categorized list of Bruckner's compositions and short biographies of important people in Bruckner's life. Any aspiring Brucknerian should not be without this book!

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Oxford UP reissued the old Dent Master Musicians series in updated texts. Unfortunately, Oxford quickly let the series go out of print.

Watson's Bruckner is about the best critical bio around. It's not perfect, but till we get a better, it's all we've got.

Bruckner is still not well understood: certainly less so than Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, Mahler, et alii.
He was a trained school teacher who was well versed in Latin; moreover, he was a professional organist appointed to the royal house of Hapsburg, who toured Europe representing the Austro-Hungarian empire.
He was fêted in Paris by César Franck, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Ambroise Thomas (president of the Paris Conservatoire) [tough crowd!!] when he performed on the Cavaillé-Coll organ of la Notre Dame de Paris.
He performed to much acclaim at the Cyrstal Palace in London.
Furthermore, of course, he was a professional musician who had completed full courses with Schubert's teacher Simon Sechter; and whose works were performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
To crown his lifetime's work, in 1895 he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of Vienna.

Dr. Bruckner was a very complex man who practiced sincere humility.
And as Oscar Wilde aptly says, "Simplicity is the last refuge of the complex."

Look for other books in this series: Schoenberg (Master Musicians Series) ; Franck (Master Musicians Series) ; Chopin (Master Musicians Series) ; Schubert (Master Musicians Series) ; Brahms (Master Musicians Series) ; Mahler (Master Musicians Series) ; Bach (Master Musicians Series) ; Beethoven (Master Musicians Series) .
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