Dr. Rudolf Innig:
"Where then is the third theme?" - About a misunderstanding in the symphonies of Anton Bruckner -
According to legend, the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, Otto Dessoff, asked during a rehearsal of the Second Symphony in D minor (1869, WAB 100), which was later cancelled by Anton Bruckner: "So where is the theme?"
If this had actually been the case, this would give rise to doubts about the artistic standing of Otto Dessoff, who was one of the most famous conductors of his time: after working as music director in Altenburg, Düsseldorf, Kassel, Aachen and Magdeburg, he was appointed court conductor in Vienna in 1860, where two years later he was promoted to subscription conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra...
Around 50 years later, another 'misunderstanding' occurred in the reception of Bruckner's symphonic music, but a misunderstanding of a different kind, the consequences of which continue to have an impact to this day: In 1921, Alfred Orel wrote in his essay Unknown Early Works of Anton Bruckner (without going into any particular symphony by Bruckner) the momentous sentence: "In principle, the second theme of the sonata form is expanded to a three-theme", a sentence that can be described as the 'birth' of the so-called third theme...