Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 (1888 Version)

Driven by disappointment over Hermann Levi's rejection of his 8th Symphony in C minor, Bruckner threw himself into revising his 3rd, 4th, and 8th Symphonies. His former students Franz and Joseph Schalk, Ferdinand Löwe, Max von Oberleithner, and Cyrill Hynai assisted with these revisions, which later brought these late versions—especially that of the Fourth—into disrepute, as more Schalk or Löwe than Bruckner was suspected in these arrangements. However, since the autograph score of this version of the Fourth was discovered and Benjamin Korstvedt's 1888 edition based on it was published in 2004, it is known: It was indeed Bruckner's will that was manifested here. Compared to the now more familiar second version from 1881, the result can still surprise and even disturb today.