NP. 0 is pretty good, 1 Linz good then he wasted his last years revising it so second version bad, 2 bad, 3 version one good, version two chopped up but OK, version 3 chopped up and bad, 4 version one scherzo bad, 4 version two pretty good, 5 version one he never heard so left it alone, then the Schalks screwed it up, 6 he left alone, 7 good, 8 version one into the dustbin, 8 version two good, 9 he didn't finish because he wasted too much time screwing up the revision of 1. That's Bruckner for you.
Probably best labeled as "minimalist abstract." I don't have a problem with such art per se, but it would have been more appropriate to use it for an album of 20th century works-- like that "modern, newfangled" stuff that @SteelyTom was alluding to.
Not sure about cause and effect. I think he was having problems figuring out how to end B9 and that's why he went back and started revising earlier symphonies. The trajectory of the first 3 movements was tragic but unlike Mahler or Tchaikovsky he had difficulty writing such a finish.
“Little Russian.” That’s one of those symphony names that don’t work that well in English. I wouldn’t blame anyone who thinks it’s named after a Russian guy of rather diminutive stature. “Little Russia” is in fact the Ukraine. Same as with Schubert’s “Great”, which is actually not named like that because it is oh-so-great, but rather because it’s his second C-major symphony and it needed to be differentiated his smaller scale “Little C major Symphony”. Still a great symphony, though.
First listen to "D'Amor Cantando - 14th Century Venetian Madrigals and Ballads" performed by Micrologus on Opus 111.
First listen to CD 9 from "Narciso Yepes - The Complete Solo Recordings" on DG. Disc 1 from Bach - Werke fur Laute BWV 995, 996 & 998
First listen to CD 8 from "Messiaen Edition" on Warner. Organ Works performed by Olivier Messiaen: La Nativite du Seigneur (1935)
Now on the turntable, record 1 of 2 from "William Byrd - The Three Masses" performed by The Tallis Scholars on Gimell. (web pic is of the CD)