Besprechung des gestrigen Konzerts mit der 3. Symphonie in The Manchester Guardian Nr. 20984 auf S. 10:

"            THE HALLÉ CONCERTS.

                     PROGRAMME.

Overture–"Le Nozze di Figaro" . . . . . . . . . .  Mozart

Aria (Sextus)–"Deh per questo" (Titus) . . .  . Mozart

Symphony No. 3, in D Minor . . . . . . . . . .  Brückner

[... Händel ... vier Lieder von Schubert, Schumann, Donizetti ... Sinigaglia ...].

     As last night's Hallé Concert had to withstand the strong counter-attraction of Strauss's "Rosebearer," ["Der Rosenkavalier" unter Thomas Beecham am selben Abend] the audience might in any case have been small, but the programme itself had few popular features. [...].

     Brückner's Symphony No. 3, in D minor, was the representative work of the concert. It was once given here by Dr. Richter–a vigorous but by no means polished performance. Last night it was more finely played, and was received with more enthusiasm than has hitherto been accorded to any work by the composer. Brückner is a composer who asks, it may be, too much of his interpreters, and, like many a writer of less genius, needs apparently to be helped out somewhat. It is hardly enough to mark this or that melody as "prominent" if there is nothing in the orchestration itself to secure, or even to indicate that prominence. Brückner grows intricate, unlike most masters, in the more lyrical sections of his symphonies. As a consequence of this intricacy, one can hardly pick out the actual melody of even the second subject of his movements, and the players in these melodic sections are apt to oppose, rather than support, the leading themes. Brückner was an organist, and keeps something of the organ's evenness and immutability of tone throughout the stronger passages. He is also one of the most pious of musicians, and seems to think it almost one of the greatest triumphs to steal his fire from the greatest masters of muic. No one can hear the opening of this symphony without thinking immediately of the opening of Beethoven's Choral Symphony, which is in the same key. There is the same throb, the same bareness, the same commanding tones. An done does marvel that the suggestion can be so finely and so originally created. Very soon we hear a horn which cries aloud the name of Siegfried. Again, the composer is very fond of striking transitions from forte to piano, of the kind which the organ can most naturally give. There is, after all, a limit to what can be safely done in this way, and the feelings do not always answer to Brückner's immense transitions, as they do so marvellously to those of Beetohoven. One felt that a greater familiarity with the work on the part of the orchestra was needed before every transition and every problem of tonal balance could be presented in the most effective way. The general handling of the work was both vivid and immensely powerful. As the "Rosebearer" gives us a cynical view of Viennese life, Brückner's Symphony gives us a pious view. We feel in the scherzo that the natural man in Brückner may have been as tender and sentimental as Schubert. But he sets off in a way that vies with the spirituality of the scherzo in Beethoven's Choral Symphony, and when, later, he drops down to the typical Viennese waltz, he has become as intricate and scholastic as the severest moments of Brahms. Here only the utmost familiarity could give the work its full grace and ease. The main subjects and passage work of the symphony have a simplicity that amounts to bareness. Strong unison passages with only a palpitating tremolo, to give life, come frequently. One very daringly syncopated unison in the last movement was not happily balanced, and the listener could not but lose his clue in the discordance. Again the fault may be Brückner's. In the musical life of Germany such a work as this symphony is more easily interpreted, and counts for more with the listener than it possibly could with us. That the work has great nobility must be apparent to everyone; whether that nobility compensates for its bareness and want of intimate suggestion to our English ears is a harder question. That the work, to be played and heard to the best advantage, should be more familiar seems certain.

     Handel's Concerto-Grosso, in the same key as the Symphony, is a fine vigorous work, [... Sinigaglia ... Arie und Liedvorträge von Tilly Koenen ... nächstes Konzert ...].

                                                                  S. L."