Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)

Bruckner (pronounced brook-ner) was a deeply spiritual Austrian composer who wrote nine moving symphonies and a number of important sacred choral works.
He was the son of a village organist, then became an organist himself as well as a teacher, and in 1855 he became an organist at the cathedral of Linz. He studied and composed music, however in 1863 he heard the music of Richard Wagner and this pointed him in a whole new direction.

Soon he began writing the first of his symphonies and his three beautiful masses.

He moved to Vienna in 1868 to teach at the Conservatory. His symphonies were not accepted in that city where his critics treated them as if they were poison. His friends told him they were too long and cuts and disfigurations took place in the works, and these later had to be rectified. He did not have any real success until the 1880s. 

Adagio: Symphony Number 7

Listen to this moving adagio. How can the beauty of this work fail to move anyone? Bruckner wrote this movement when he discovered that Wagner's health was failing from old age.
"I returned home and was very sad. I thought to myself, it is not  possible that the Master will live very long, and it was then that the C-sharp minor Adagio came into my head."

Anton Bruckner: Mass Number 3 in F minor Akademie Kammerchor. The Vienna State Philharmonic Orchestra. Ferdinand Grossman, conductor. 1950s recording.