A contemporary of César Franck and Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner was at first a shy and clumsy provincial organist who only began composing at the age of thirty. However, he would end up as one of the greatest composers of sacred and symphonic music. Moved to tears by Richard Wagner, this son of a musician and schoolteacher from the city of Linz laboriously taught himself almost entirely. In Vienna, however, Bruckner was to become a great professor at the conservatory and university with Gustav Mahler and Wolf figuring among his pupils.
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