Cover -- Table of Contents -- Foreword -- Part One: Brahms and Bruckner: A Radical Historical, Art-Theoretical and Artistic Contrast -- I. Aspects and Issues -- II. Art and Personality -- III. The Conflict -- IV. Art-Theoretical Controversies -- 1. "Zukunftsmusik" vs. Absolute Music -- 2. Heteronomic vs. Autonomic Aesthetics -- 3. Apologetics of Invention vs. Apotheosis of Execution -- 4. Progressivism vs. Traditionalism -- V. On Historical Classification -- VI. Parallelisms and Antitheses -- VII. The Relation to Historicism -- VIII. "Heirs" of Beethoven -- 1. A Common Model: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony -- 2. About the Middle Movements of Brahms' and Bruckner's Symphonies -- IX. Parallelisms and Antitheses Once More -- X. Richard Wagner -- Part Two: The Unknown Brahms -- XI. Brahms: An Autonomous Composer? -- XII. "Young Kreisler" -- 1. Documentation -- 2. Brahms' Identification with E. T. A. Hoffmann's Chrysostomus-Kreisler -- XIII. Schumann's Essay "Neue Bahnen": A New Interpretation -- 1. Genetic Documents -- 2. "Johannes as the True Apostle": the Essay as a Messianic Prophecy -- 3. The Essay as Lehrbrief for the "Young Kreisler" -- 4. "A Secret Alliance of Kindred Spirits": The Essay as Musico-Political Manifest -- XIV. Schumann and Brahms: Brahms' Schumann Variations (op. 9) and Schumann's "Davidsbündlertänze" -- 1. Biographic Backgrounds: "The Portentous Days: Clara, Aurora, Eusebius" -- 2. Schumann as a Technical Model -- 3. Schumann as a Spiritual Model: Brahms-Kreisler and Eusebius-Florestan. The Relation between the Variations and the Davidsbündlertänze -- XV. The Piano Variations Op. 23: A Monument to Robert Schumann -- XVI. "Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini": On the "Mass quotation" in the Adagio of the "Piano Concerto op. 15" -- XVII. A Special Kind of Father-Son Relationship -- Part Three: The Unknown Bruckner.

XVIII. Bruckner - "the most Absolute of Absolute Musicians"? -- XIX. Bruckner and the Program Symphony -- 1. Relations to Liszt -- 2. Relations to Berlioz -- XX. On Bruckner Exegesis: The "Tone Symbol of the Cross" (Liszt) -- XXI. The Program of the "Romantic" Symphony -- 1. Bruckner's Explanations, Especially in the Letter to Paul Heyse -- 2. Bruckner's Conception of the "Romantic." Affinity with "Lohengrin" -- 3. The Program Particulars and the Music -- 4. Conclusion -- XXII. The Program of the Eighth Symphony: Musical Semantics and Historical Contexts -- 1. The Letter to Weingartner (1891) and Stradal's Account (1886) -- 2. The Program of the First Movement and the Dutchman's Aria -- 3. The "German Michel" (Scherzo) -- 4. The Adagio and Joseph Schalk's Commentary (1892) -- 5. Finale -- Afterword -- Notes -- Selective Bibliography -- 1. General -- 2. Literature about Brahms -- 3. Literature about Bruckner -- 4. Literature about Brahms and Bruckner -- 5. Literature about Clara und Robert Schumann -- Register of Works.