Not too well received by the audience. Many left before it was over. Many orchestra members even left the stage before Bruckner could take a bow. He tinkered with the score for many years but Leopold Novak revised the score in 1889 from what Bruckner left a year earlier. The third revised version was FP in Vienna in December of 1890.
Critics note it is an assertive work and elaborately scored.
He started this work when he was 49 years old, in 1873-74. There were some revisions in 1874 and 1881. There were later publication tamperings and an edition by Leopold Novak, who restored the work and worked on Bruckner's dramatic ending which was arranged for conductor Anton Seidl. FP in Vienna in 1881, but conducted by Hans Richter. After another revision the first printed edition came out in Vienna in 1889.