The premiere, given under Arthur Nikisch and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the opera house at Leipzig on 30 December 1884,[1] brought Bruckner the greatest success he had known in his life.

[2] The symphony has four movements: The first movement starts with tremolo strings and the cellos presenting "a complete, divinely given melodic whole:"[3] Bruckner declared he heard it in a dream, played on a viola, and wrote it down on awakening, but the tune incorporates a quotation from the Credo of his D minor Mass (1864) which he was currently revising.

It is above these things:"[4] Legend has it that Bruckner wrote the cymbal clash at the climax of this movement upon hearing the news that Wagner had died.

[5] By way of contrast, William Mann states that "at the climax of the slow movement Nikisch persuaded Bruckner to add a cymbal clash supported by a triangle; later this addition to the manuscript was marked 'invalid' – but not in the composer's hand, so who was the purist?

[7][8] The scherzo is in A minor and opens with a rhythmic string figure and a melody with a leap of an octave played by a solo trumpet: The Trio is in F major and is in a slower tempo: Unlike the Fifth and Eighth symphonies, where the Finale sums up the entire symphony, this Finale is not as expansive as the other movements.

It is widely accepted that Nikisch, Franz Schalk and Ferdinand Löwe had significant influence over this edition, but there is some debate over the extent to which these changes were authorized by Bruckner.

Robert Haas attempted to remove the influence of Nikisch, Schalk and Löwe in order to retrieve Bruckner's original conception of the symphony.

Some performances of this edition omit the cymbal crash at the climax of the slow movement, but it is included in the printed score.

An arrangement of this symphony for chamber ensemble (consisting of 2 violins, viola, cello, bass, clarinet, horn, piano 4-hands, and harmonium) was prepared in 1921 by students and associates of Arnold Schoenberg, for the Viennese "Society for Private Musical Performances": Hanns Eisler (1st and 3rd movements), Erwin Stein (2nd mvt.

[19] On BBC Radio 3 in December 2014, John Deathridge selected Bernard Haitink's Concertgebouw recording from 1966 as the 'First Choice' in the 'Building a Library' series.

The chamber arrangement has been recorded, by among others, the Thomas Christian Ensemble, proving to one reviewer "beyond doubt that it simply takes more than 10 musicians, no matter how good they are, to play a Bruckner symphony.