Listen without prejudice

A drunkard? An otherworldly peasant? A Nazi-favourite? Who was the real Bruckner, and why does his music polarise listeners?The first time I heard a Bruckner symphony in the concert hall was back in 1990, as part of the celebrations that inaugurated the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The city scored a major coup that year by getting the Berlin Philharmonic to play two concerts under Kurt Sanderling. The second of these – every moment of which is seared into my brain – featured Mozart's Fourth V...

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