Symphony No. 3 in D minor

This work, dedicated to Richard Wagner, the 'Master of all Masters', has a special place among the symphonies in that it exists in three differing autograph scores and two differing printed editions (1878 and 1890). The original version has come down to us in two copies, one now belonging to the Austrian National Library (Bruckner's own copy), and the other to the Richard Wagner Archive in Bayreuth. With its 2,065 bars, this first version is Bruckner’s longest symphony.

It was when examining material used at the first performance of the Third, in the Archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, that Leopold Nowak brought to light an intermediate version of the symphony's slow movement. As compared with the first version, it has lengthened periods but also a number of shortenings and changes in instrumentation; the composer furthermore enriched the Wagner quotations with a motif reminiscent of Tannhäuser.

The Adagio No. 2 was given its first performances by the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado at the Musikverein on 24–26 May. 1980 in the course of the Wiener Festwochen.

Before its first performance, Bruckner made modifications to the symphony, drastically reducing the dimensions of the 1st, 2nd and 4th movements. The failure of the first performance on 16 December 1877 at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna was the bitterest disappointment of Bruckner's life.

Bruckner produced this version of the Third Symphony – the version most often played nowadays – at the same time as he was occupied with the re-shaping of the Eighth. He took the printed edition of 1878 as the basis for his revision of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd movements; when making his extensive cuts to the Finale, he used a copy made by Franz Schalk. The performance on 21 December 1890, given by the Vienna Philharmonic under Hans Richter, was a complete success.