Anton Bruckner began work on the first drafts of his Third Symphony immediately after completing his Second. His choice of key, D minor, which the composer from Sankt Florian had already used in his "annulled" Symphony of 1869, is surely no coincidence, since it refers to the monumental Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, which is generally viewed as the significant symphonic compositional model for Bruckner's work. The comparison between Bruckner's Third and Beethoven's Ninth seems more than obvious.

No doubt the audiences of the day harboured such expectations. What is more, Bruckner considered himself to be Beethoven's legitimate successor. Then again, the path to the premiere of his Third Symphony was a long - and above all stony - one.