# Did Bruckner hear any Mahler?



## BoggyB (May 6, 2016)

I think the answer is no, but I want to ask anyway. Mahler's first two symphonies premiered while Bruckner was still alive, in different cities, so did Bruckner attend any of these or subsequent performances? Or did he at least see the scores? Is there any evidence he knew that Mahler was working on big symphonies?


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## VoiceFromTheEther (Aug 6, 2021)

Yeah, they play it whole the time in heaven in the waiting room. (or so I'm told)


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## MrMeatScience (Feb 15, 2015)

Mahler informally studied with Bruckner in the mid-late 1870s (i.e. well before Mahler's "op. 1" _Das Klagende Lied_). However it seems highly unlikely to me that Bruckner wouldn't have heard some of his (allegedly very good, now lost) early pieces while Mahler was at the conservatory. He had taken a particular liking to Mahler and entrusted him, along with Mahler's friend Rudolf Krzyzanowski, with the four-hand reduction of his Third Symphony.


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

I imagine he'd seen the scores. According to Swafford, Brahms at least had seen the scores of Mahler 1 and 2, and he only outlived Bruckner by a year or so.


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