Donald Satz wrote:

>I have yet to get a good grip on Bruckner's symphonies - such long and
>leisurely build-ups to his climaxes.  However, I intend to give him
>another shot once the new year begins.

For me, a Bruckner Symphony is like a long, intelligent, sermon at church.
If I can hang in long enough, I feel like it can touch my soul...however,
I just wish he would get to the point without the use of sequence...but
then, I believe part of his message is the process...in an odd way, for
me, it is a bit like reading Dickens.

My introduction to his music came as the result of an article in High
Fidelity Magazine...I bought the 8th and listened a few times (I was in
my early teens) and didn't return to Bruckner until I was in graduate
school.  We discussed the 7th in one of my seminars and noticed that the
Scherzo had an idea which reminded me of a portion of the Hanson 3rd
Symphony...I know, an odd way to get to Bruckner.  However, once I could
"identify" with some of the thematic material I found that I could more
easily relate to his process.

However, when I listened to the 9th, I felt profoundly moved...not unlike
my response to the Mahler 10th...and Copland's Inscape...works which,
for me, really seem to reach for the infinite...which suggests to me an
interesting question...what music do all of you find that seems to be
looking for...and I don't mean to sound flip...some meaning for all that
there is?  I don't mean a notion of "heavenly" music, but substantive
works that seem to be looking for meaning beyond what we know.  Perhaps
like Ives' Unanswered Question.

The works I mentioned above seem to me not to be about musical form, or
thematic material...it is almost like those composers were not writing
music, but were expressing their most profound inner thoughts through
sound...hope this makes sense.

Karl