John Dalmas ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Furthermore, in the case of the 3rd Symphony, as Deryk should know, the
>only available early orchestral text already displays inadmissable cuts and
>editorial tomfoolery.  In other words, no authentic "original" orchestral
>version of the 3rd exists.  ...

I passed this over to David Griegel (aka Mr.  Bruckner Version) and I
append his comments.  Evidently he's updated his document since the one
I have on my web page - I'll update that as soon as I get the new info
from him.

   By referring to the piano reduction as the "original", John clearly
   indicates that his information is over 20 years out of date.  Here's
   the latest version of my Bruckner Third description (the version on
   your website has some errors in it, particularly in regard to the
   Third):

   Symphony No. 3:
      1873 Version (Nowak)
      1874 Version [Mus.Hs. 6033] (unpublished)
      1876 Version (Nowak [Adagio only])
      1877 Version [Mus.Hs. 19475] (Nowak)
      1879 Version [Mus.Hs. 34611] (1880*, Oeser)
      1889 Version [Mus.Hs. 6081] (1890*, Nowak)

   The 1873 version is based on Wagner's dedication score along with
   the corrections in Mus.Hs.  6033.  In addition to corrections, Mus.Hs.
   6033 contains revisions, which Bruckner thought to be considerable
   improvements.  This is the 1874 version.  It features some great
   brass parts, much in the style of the 1874 version of the Fourth.
   A rhythmic revision led to the 1876 version; only the Adagio of this
   version has been published so far.  With a tiny amount of guesswork,
   the entire work could be reconstructed.  The 1877 and 1879 versions
   are nearly the same; the main difference is that the 1877 version
   includes a Scherzo coda plus two extra measures (of rests) near the
   beginning of the first movement.

   * The 1880 and 1890 editions (the former is usually said to have been
   published in 1878, but this is incorrect) contain alterations not found
   in the printer's scores, which were later published in their unaltered
   forms by Oeser and Nowak, respectively.

The piano reduction made by Mahler (and someone else) is based on the
1879 version of the score, and it was published either in 1879 or 1880.
(The orchestral score and parts were published in 1880.) If that were
the original, then John's remarks about "inadmissible cuts and editorial
tomfoolery" may contain some truth.  (But why should cuts that were almost
certainly chosen by Bruckner be considered inadmissible?) But that is not
the original!  John needs to be enlightened about the existence of the
1873 version, published by Nowak in 1977.

Deryk Barker
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