This study provides a fuller account of Bruckner"s early and middle years than has hitherto been available, and supplements the more accessible information about his years in Vienna by drawing on a rich source of material in contemporary reviews of performances of his works, comparisons between him and Brahms, and the well-documented accounts of hostility between the "conservative" pro-Brahms faction (represented by Hanslick, Halbeck and others) and the "progressive" pro-Wagner and pro-Bruckner faction (represented by the Schalk brothers, Ferdinand Lowe and Hugo Wolf).