Although during the mid-19th century the geographic centre of the symphony in the Germanic territories moved west and north from Vienna to Leipzig, during the last third of the century it returned to the old Austrian lands with the work of Brahms, Bruckner, Dvorak and Mahler. After nearly half a century of hibernation, the sleeping Viennese giant awoke to what some viewed as a re-incarnation of Beethoven with the first hearing of Brahm's Symphony No. 2, which was premiered in Vienna in December 1877. Even though Bruckner had composed some gigantic symphonies prior to Brahm's first contribution, their full impact was not felt until the composer's complete texts became available after World War II. Although Dvorak was often viewed as a nationalist composer, in his symphonic writing his primary influences were Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. For both Bruckner and Mahler, the symphony constituted the heart of their output; for Brahms and Dvorak, it occupied a less central place. Yet for all of them, the key figure of the past remained Beethoven.
The symphonies of these four composers, together with the works of Goldmark, Zemlinsky, Schoenberg, Berg, Smetana, Fibich, Janacek and others are treated in this fourth volume in the series on the Viennese Symphony, covering the period from roughly 1860 to 1930.