Beruht auf den Berichten von Josef Stöger, Fritz Krottenau und Franz Bayer. Viel Anekdotisches: Br. mit Hofmeyr auf Brautschau beim Schuster; Bruckner und Brahms an einem Silvesterabend in einem Wiener Lokal, ohne ein Wort zu wechseln; Bruckner erzählte, er habe in Bayreuth den ausgestopften Hunden im Wahnfried-Vorraum ein Busserl gegeben; kündigte Hofmeyr an, seine nächste Symphonie würde er mit einem Trommelwirbel »ta-ta-ta-ta« beginnen, so wie Rossini eine Oper; Fahrt nach Admont am 17.8.1890 [sic!]; bei Feier des 64. Geburtstags [?] in St. Ulrich lernte er Frl. M. P. [Payrleitner] kennen, die er tags darauf besuchte, wo er von ihrer Verlobung mit Herrn B. erfuhr (»Was, mit dem Bock?«); im Hotel »Krebs« (ehem. Zeilberger) lernte er Familie »R.« kennen, zu deren Gut in Dietach er mit Almeroths Wagen fuhr, sich von Schulleiter E. hinführen und wenigstens Zimmer und Bett des »ausgeflogenen« Mädchens zeigen ließ; Ausflug nach Ternberg mit Bayer, Diätsünde mit Gselchtem, Besichtigung der neuen Eisenbahnbrücke; in Steyr sei Bruckner von Dr. K. betreut worden; Josef Stöger, fünf Jahre Bruckners Friseur, berichtet, Bruckner sei von seiner Bedeutung felsenfest überzeugt gewesen (*a).

 

Im Linzer Tagblatt Nr. 120 wird auf S. 4 die morgige Aufführung von "Ohne Mitternacht" [sic! recte "Um Mitternacht", WAB 90] angekündigt (**).

 

Ein Artikel im Evening Public Leader Nr. 219 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) auf S. 9 beleuchtet auch die Werke Bruckners und ihre Publikumsresonanz:

"      THE CRITIC TALKS TO MUSIC LOVERS

WITH the close of the most active and artistically the best musical season that Philadelphia, or, for that matter, the coutry has ever known, comes the annual complaint that the American composer has not had a fair chance in the preformance of his works in the larger forms.

     As usual the blame is thrown upon the orchestral conductors [... auch das Publikum spielt eine Rolle ...].

ANY conductor can put a composition on a program once and a few of them can put it on for several seasons, but no conductor, no matter how great he may be musically nor how large his personal following, can regularly give compositions of which his public does not approve. In the end the voice of the music-loving public will make itself heard and in no uncertain tones.

     A striking case in point was the fate of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner. He composed nine of them and for some reason his standing among the best conductors of Europe was very high. It must be admitted that Bruckner was one of the most distinguished contrapuntists of modern times, that his musical ideals were lofty and his workmanship of the highest order. He was recognized as all this and more by the greatest European conductors, who for a number of years insisted that the public was wrong about the compositions and that if they were heard a sufficient number of times they would be ranked in the highest class, where they (the conductors) asserted they belonged.

     Never probably has a composer received the same conductorial assistance that the orchestral works of Bruckner received from the leaders of European orchestral directing. But what was the ultimate result?

THE public looked at the matter in a different light. They maintained that musically the works were dry and uninteresting and they simply wouldn't have the Bruckner symphonies. All this happened not very much more than twenty-five years ago, but today the orchestral works of Anton Bruckner are almost as non-existent as though they had never been composed. It was a clear case of the public against the conductors and the result shows strongly where the real power lies.

     Perhaps the conductors were right and the public was wrong, but the writer, for one, does not believe this.

     [... über amerikanische Komponisten und die Zusammensetzung der Konzertprogramme ... amerikanische Werke im Wettbewerb mit einer 300 Jahre alten Konkurrenz ... gäbe es einen bedeutenden Komponisten], his idiom will be almost, although again not quite, as strange to the conductors as it will be to the audiences." [keine Signatur]. (***).