Symphony No. 1 - Adagio & Scherzo Movements

Original Adagio movement (1865/66; fragment) and the earlier version of the Scherzo (1865)

Bruckner at first conceived the slow movement of the First in classical sonata form with development but for the Linz version he finally decided in favor of a three-part structure with an elaborately composed middle section. The autograph of the original Adagio (now in the Music Collection of the Austrian National Library), still without trumpets or trombones, breaks off at bar 154 in the recapitulation of the second subject. One sheet of the score still exists from the close of the movement (from bar 12 of the recapitulation of the second subject) using trumpets and trombones, thus representing a transitional stage between the original Adagio and that of the Linz version. The last score page of the first Scherzo and Trio is inscribed 'Munchen 25. Mai 1865' -- at the time Bruckner was in Munich for the first performance of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde." For the Linz version he wrote a completely new Scherzo, but kept the Trio unchanged.