Convention holds that Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony finale exists as a pile of sketches too fragmentary to be completed by another hand. None of the prior attempts at reconstruction have offered a convincing solution as the various gaps (mostly transitional material) left the piece sounding incoherent. Worst of all there was no coda, giving the impression that Bruckner was unable bring his last work to a conclusion. However, recent research, buttressed by sketch material that has resurfaced in the intervening 100-plus years since Bruckner’s death, some discovered as recently as 1990, indicates that Bruckner did indeed finish the finale, at least in draft form. In fact, even the movement’s final 24-bar cadence has been found, allowing for a full-scale reconstruction.
Hearing the symphony complete offers a new perspective on the music and new insights into its overall plan. A recurring feature of all four movements is a sequence of quasi-chromatically ascending chords that builds tension until a powerful release, followed by a descending tonic scale. In the first movement this release and scale are one and the same: a massive dropping octave. The scherzo’s scale comes at the end with its repeated falling arpeggios. In the adagio we hear a descending horn chorale (called “farewell to life” by Bruckner) that reappears in the finale as the trumpet’s blazing downward scale. However, it is the ascent which is the ultimate goal, as the adagio ends in a serene upward arpeggio (reminiscent of Symphony No. 7), and the finale uses the same for its majestic peroration.
The present performing version by editors Samale, Phillips, Cohrs, and Mazzuca incorporates the rediscovered material, while the remaining missing portions were either interpolated from indications in the score or intuited from clues found in writings of Bruckner’s contemporaries. This edition was previously recorded by Kurt Eichhorn with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz for Camerata. However, Eichhorn’s glacial tempos and stiff, unimaginative phrasing make the music seem disjointed, diffuse, and dimly inspired. It sounds as if Bruckner’s musical well had certainly gone dry.
But what a difference a conductor can make! Johnannes Wildner employs Samale, Phillips, Cohrs, and Mazzuca’s 1996 revision, which incorporates even newer material unearthed since 1994. More importantly, he conducts the score as living, vital music rather than some dead historical tract. Wildner’s upbeat tempos bring a welcome continuity to the opening paragraph’s repeated descending figures, giving them much needed shape and direction. The interpolated climax just before the final cadence, a passage that in Eichhorn’s recording sounds oddly like something out of Berg, here rings true thanks to Wildner’s flowing pace and clear ensemble balance, not to mention Naxos’ vastly superior recording. Thanks to his deep understanding of the composer’s idiom, Wildner simply succeeds in making the piece sound like Bruckner.
There are still a few doubtful passages, mostly in the central fugue, which sounds thinly textured and at times contrapuntally confused. And some of the transitions (some of which were “realized” by the editors) feel rather awkward. But so do those in the first versions of finales in Bruckner’s early symphonies. In fact, in its rough-hewn, somewhat clunky quality the movement is strongly reminiscent of the original finale to Symphony No. 4.
Of course, the finale isn’t the only movement on offer here, and Wildner proves just as able in the first three. While the Westphalia New Philharmonic probably is not on anyone’s list of great Bruckner orchestras (those would include Vienna, Dresden, Chicago, and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw), the players do provide a solid and dramatic rendition of the first movement (the brass rings out powerfully in the climaxes) and scherzo. In the adagio Wildner powerfully communicates the music’s turmoil and transcendence but leaves the feeling of more to come. If only Naxos had placed the third and fourth movements on the same CD, thereby avoiding the psychological break between the familiar and the new. In all, this is a committed and moving performance that makes a strong case for hearing Bruckner’s last symphony whole. Naxos’ bargain price makes this important investigation easily affordable.
