Anton Bruckner’s cloistered upbringing in the Augustinian monastery of Sankt Florian would seem to have fitted him for a lifetime of refection, emotional calm, and most of all sobriety. Yes, he had a thing for young girls, but that was less about embracing a racy lifestyle and more about wanting to be sure he married a virgin.
Anton Bruckner
There are occasional hints that Bruckner liked a dram or two. On one occasion, after a particularly rewarding rehearsal of his Fourth Symphony in 1881, the socially awkward Bruckner slipped a gratuity to the conductor Hans Richter: “When the symphony was over,” Richter recalled, “Bruckner came to me, his face beaming with enthusiasm and joy. I felt him press a coin into my hand. ‘Take this,’ he said, ‘and drink a glass of beer to my health.’” Whether they then retired to a public house we do not know, but Richter retained the coin as a keepsake and wore it on his watch-chain for the rest of his life.
Prior to that, Bruckner had laboured for decades to rise above his Austrian peasant stock origins. Even as late...
Comments
Log in to join the conversation.