It's a slightly different point to mine, but equally important. Bruckner languished in relative obscurity for some time because of the forces ranged against him in Vienna (led by Hanslick in particular), having been associated with the Wagnerians. His music itself did meet with very positive acclaim from audiences, but having the most influential critic ranged against you* militated against a consistent career. I'm imagining that you are implying that had he pursued his path in a different country, he would have been less caught in such polemics and been allowed to flourish more unhindered (do correct me if I'm wrong)?

*As an example of the ferociousness of his opposition, read what Hanslick said about the premiere of the Eight Symphony: one finds 'immediate juxtaposition of dry schoolroom counterpoint with unbounded exaltation. Thus, tossed about between intoxication and desolation, we arrive at no definite impression and enjoy no artistic pleasure. Everything flows, without clarity and without order, willy-nilly into dismal long-windedness. In each of the four movements, and most frequently in the first and third, there are interesting passages and flashes of genius - if only all the rest were not there!' and 'In the Adagio we behold nothing less than 'the all-loving Father of Mankind in all His infinite mercy!' Since this Adagio lasts exactly twenty-eight minutes or about as long as an entire Beethoven symphony, we cannot complain of being denied ample time for the contemplation of the rare vision. At long last, the Finale - which, with its baroque themes, its confused structure and inhuman din, strikes us only as a model of tastelessness - represents, according to the programme, 'Heroism in the Service of the Divine!''

Partly that, but also that even if he'd been neglected for some time after his death, the climate of reevaluation of non-Austro-German composers in the latter part of the 20th century would I think have favoured a Norwegian composer of harmonically and structurally unorthodox, large-scale symphonies such as Bruckner's.

They only get in because one wrote a string quartet and the other wrote a symphony!

Whereas a discussion at the level of "my composer's better than yours" does have inherent merit?

I can't agree. For me it conjures up to perfection the fjords, the frozen pine forests, the grandeur of the mountains, dancing trolls, the distant clash of reindeer antlers, the shimmer of the Aurora Borealis, the mournful cry of the elusive Norwegian Blue. How can you be deaf to all this?

Ah, you've perfectly described the music's 'Nordic origins', I reckon

Remarkably easy, evidently   I have listened to his entire output, and tried hard to find something to admire in it.  I have even sung his awful TE DEUM,  which is surely the low watermark.  All I hear is an organist in charge of an orchestra, and presumably a captive audience.  I sometimes try relistening to the symphonies,  but I have to take them off after about 10-15 minutes.

I'll dig out what I have of Debussy's writings and correspondence later (I don't own my own copies of the collected French Correspondance, which has much important material in; found various stuff that I stored in a file when doing a bit of research into this matter, alas lost the file when a computer went down (though the writing for which it was used was preserved)). But as Bruckner's orchestration was mentioned, I thought I'd post what Hanslick had to say on that in the same review of the Eighth Symphony: ' Wagnerian orchestral effects are met on every hand, such as the tremolos of the violinist divisi in the highest position, harp arpeggios over muffled chords in the trombones, and, added to all that, the newest achievements of the Siegfried tubas.' (Wagner tubas were also known as Siegfried tubas).

I reckon Reiner would like passages such as the following: 'From him [Josef Schalk, pianist and composer, pupil of Bruckner, and writer] we learned that the irksome humming theme of the first movement represents the figure of the Aeschylean Prometheus. An especially tiresome part of this movement is charmingly described as 'most awful loneliness and quiet'. Right next to Prometheus stands Der deutsche Michl [a term used to represent a kind of sturdy, oafish peasant]. Had a critic uttered this blasphemy, he would probably have been stoned by the Bruckner disciples. But it was the composer himself who gave the Scherzo the name of Der deutsche Michl, as is plain to be seen in black and white in the programme. With this authentic pronouncement before him, however, the commentator (Schalk) doesn't hesitate to find in the Michl-Scherzo 'the deeds and sufferings of Prometheus reduced in parody to the smallest scale.''