Although Johannes Brahms’s four symphonies are popularly considered to be no less important than the greatest earlier symphonies, the contribution of his contemporary Anton Bruckner is controversial. Bruckner, a devout Catholic whose church music is among the finest of his generation, is noteworthy not only for the excessive length and heavy orchestration of many late movements but for his Wagnerian harmonies, large-scale repetitions, and (at its best) monumental conceptions of form. Bruckner gathered much from studying late Beethoven and Schubert. Yet his style evolved little in the course of nine symphonies (he was over 40 when he wrote his first symphonies; two other unnumbered early ones are never heard, and his last was incomplete at his death). Entirely personal in expression, his symphonies underwent frequent revision. They are in four movements and are basically unprogrammatic, even conservative. Despite his devotion to Wagner and Beethoven, Bruckner remained provincial; his technique was grounded on traditional studies, and his movement types seem to follow a set of typical formulas that derived from Classical patterns, especially the sonata. Within these formal types he develops themes powerful in their simplicity and monolithic in harmonic expanse. Chords reminiscent of German chorale (hymn melody harmonizations) and tremolo or pizzicato (plucked) accompaniments occur along with organlike counterpoint and pedal points (sustained notes against changing harmonies). Hardly imbued with youthful vigour, some scherzos still have roots in the fertile Austrian popular music that nourished Haydn and Beethoven. These movements, however, are not sufficient to lighten the overall impression of density. Unlike those of Brahms, Bruckner’s symphonies are not immediately rewarding, yet connoisseurs, including Mahler, respect Bruckner’s heroic finales, in which themes from earlier movements are sometimes combined. Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major (1874, first performance of revision, 1881), with a Beethovenian andante and scherzo recalling the hunt, is noteworthy for the use of four themes in the first movement. Symphony No. 7 in E Major (1881–83, rev. 1885), well received at first hearing, is Wagnerian in orchestration (Wagner tubas play in the adagio) and makes use of contrapuntal techniques developed in the Renaissance. In the last two symphonies the adagio movements occur after the scherzos rather than before.

The symphonies of Brahms, each highly individual, appealing on first hearing, and rewarding to rehear, could hardly be more different from Bruckner’s. Yet Brahms, his technique grounded on thorough study of Classical and Baroque works, was no less essentially conservative. He retained the four-movement format and familiar methods of thematic development and rigorous contrapuntal craftsmanship, avoided programmatic content, and was always concerned with aural effect. These concerns are reflected in his orchestration, which is never merely flashy, never astonishing. His entire remarkable skill and attention to detail served the lyrical, spontaneous flow of his melody. His tunes, Romantic as Schubert’s, are developed with consistency, refinement, and a harmonic interest foreign to many lesser contemporaries (especially those seduced by Berlioz and Liszt but without understanding their talent). Brahms is a master of understatement. Finished in 1876, 20 years after it was begun, his Symphony No. 1 in C Minor was the fruit of a mature man’s experience. It carried on where Beethoven left off, drawing inspiration especially from Beethoven’s Fifth. The triumph of major over minor, epitomized in the finale, underlies the whole. The key scheme of the movements is cyclic, based on a succession of rising major thirds: C minor, E major, A♭ (= G♯) major, C minor–major. The third movement, formally a scherzo with trio, slackens tension as though to prepare for the marvelously developed finale, which is preceded by a broad introduction (as is the first movement) that sets harmonic and thematic goals for the remainder.

Clear goal orientation also characterizes the Symphony No. 2 in D Major (1877). Unlike the first symphony in mood, it is pervaded in all movements by optimistic calm. The first and last share a three-note motive that is joined by other serene themes in the first movement, which includes a long horn solo near the end. The second movement begins in B major, a third lower than the first, and the fast third movement begins a lower third still, in G major; the finale returns to D. This third-based tonal scheme, like that of the Symphony No. 1, marks Brahms as a true Romantic, as do the tempo changes within movements, the sensuous modulations that circumscribe harmonic goals, and the intense major–minor conflicts.

Modal tension—major versus minor—characterizes the cyclic Symphony No. 3 in F Major (1883), the movements of which are related by material derived from Brahms’s “motto” motive, FAF, frei aber froh (“free but joyful”). Winds are prominently featured, particularly clarinet and horn, as elsewhere in these symphonies. Brahms retained Classical outlines as usual, but, as in his first symphony, the scherzo with trio serves to throw the vigorous, stormy finale into relief. The first movement plunges to the heart of things from the opening chords, harmonizing the motto; there is no introduction, no coyness in exposing the main themes. Chromatic harmony and contrapuntal development are fully exploited.

Brahms’s architectural skill is nowhere more in evidence than in the finale of the Symphony No. 4 in E Minor (1884–85), an extended chaconne, or set of variations over an (eight-bar) repeated bass melody. This movement is almost Baroque; and elsewhere in the work Brahms employs Baroque contrapuntal techniques, chromatic labyrinths, and modal melody that hovers between major and minor but is neither. In this work particularly, but throughout the symphonies, Brahms epitomized the tendency of the later Romantics to seek a balance between the expressive forms of the early 19th century and older traditional technique, to apply to the wealth of available harmonic and orchestral colour constructive methods consciously founded upon study of Beethoven (particularly his fourth, seventh, and eighth symphonies), Handel, and other models. These disciplined composers (including Schumann and Mendelssohn) reacted partly against what they felt to be the extramusical emphasis and compositional excesses of Berlioz, Liszt, and lesser figures, who took as their point of departure Beethoven’s less conventional fifth, sixth, and ninth symphonies.