The Manchester Guardian Nr. 20774 zieht in einer Konzertbesprechung auf S. 14 Vergleiche zwischen Cesar Franck und Bruckner:

"                 THE HALLÉ CONCERTS.

[... auf dem Programm u. a. die Symphonie von Franck ...]

     Last night's concert was the last symphonic concert of the Hallé season, and it showed Mr. Balling perservering to the end in the brave independence of choice in his programme that has marked his policy throughout the winter. [...] We have learned that a pious scholarship goes to the making of everything Franck has written, and that the noble traits of his music are suffused with a romantic mysticism that makes him of all composers whose music is tinged with religious emotion the most adequate to modern ears. In the religious cast of his symphonic genius Franck has some relation to Bruckner and Mahler. He is like Bruckner, too, in his fondnesse for the solemn tone of the wind instruments, a fondness which may be due to some extent to the fact that both were life-long organists. But Franck does not lay out the beams of his work quite as broadly as these German masters, but works rather with smallhewn stones to pile his symphony together, and brings it finally to a greatness and firmness beyond what are at first promised. It is characteristic that while they have each written nine symphonies he has compiled only one. [... u. a. Klagen über die schlechte Akustik der Free Trade Hall ... Manches habe] the utmost beauty of exotic harmony and romantic colour. Franck is one of the few composers who can use chromatic melody to noble ends. He is also one of the few (and in this gift Bruckner is his peer) who can use tremulous effects with all the noble tremulousness of light. The quivering flames of sound have a romantic glow like the colours of the evening sun reflected on far hills and high castles.

    Franck often reminds us of Schumann [... die anderen Programmnumemrn ...]. Next week the season will close with the "Parsifal" concert, for which great preparation has been made." [keine Signatur]