Bruckner - Symphony No. 2, mov. 3

September 4/Anton Bruckner, the Austrian composer, was born on this day in 1824. The tireless, some say obsessive, composer is perhaps best known for his symphonies of which there are nine though there are oftentimes several versions of each one. Bruckner revised his pieces continuously, reworking them long after they had been published and performed in earlier forms. He continued revising even his earliest pieces up until his death in 1896 at the age of seventy-two. This lifelong impulse to revise his works has led to much consternation among later orchestra directors and conductors as there is oftentimes no definitive version of the score for many of his compositions. In spite of this frustration and confusion, which gave birth to the commonly used term "The Bruckner Problem," his passionate and dynamic works, representative of the late-romantic period, are heralded as grand achievements of the style and he remains one of the most respected and performed composers of the 19th century. This is the third movement from his Second Symphony, first written in 1872 and later revised in 1873, 1876, 1877 and 1892. This version, recorded in 1980 by the Dresden Orchestra, is taken from the first publicized score and therefore thought by many to be closest to Bruckner's original intent.