Music and Recording Features

Simon Rattle, Carnegie Hall, 2/24/12

I waited a long time for this performance: the first on US soil of Bruckner's Symphony 9 with any edition of the completion of the Finale by Nicola Samale, John A. Phillips, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs, and Giuseppe Mazzuca (SPCM), and the first anywhere of a four-movement 9th by a first-rank conductor and orchestra, in this case Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. I sat in seat K-16, on the right side of the Parquet (orchestra or floor section) of Carnegie Hall, and so was even more grateful that Rattle had split the Berlin's first and second violin sections into antiphonal choirs, left and right. It beautifully clarified Bruckner's even-handed writing for the two sections. I don't think I have ever heard an orchestra of such finesse wedded to such power. The sheer volume of sound in the hall was almost overwhelming.

Rattle clearly deeply feels the power of this work, and was able to convey that to us through the orchestra—I don't think I've ever seen so clear an example of a conductor holding or reserving, for a hundred or so musicians, a common space into or through which could be collected or focused what must have been their many different feelings and thoughts about this music. The ongoing, everyday miracle of the modern symphony orchestra—so many playing not only coherently, but with great delicacy, as one—was once again made manifest.

That said, I found the performance itself a strangely mixed bag. In the first and third movements, Rattle's considerable range of dynamics was movingly effective, and I think his Scherzo may be the best I've heard—overpowering and hellish, and never lacking in precision. If Scherzo this was, it was one of absolute dead seriousness. Throughout the symphony, in fact, the Berliners' precision and control and power seemed almost superhuman. I agree with Bruckner Journal editor Ken Ward, however; as he pointed out in his excellent review on Bachtrack, the orchestra's relentless sostenuto playing does somewhat mask the inner voices and some of the subtler counterpoint. Perhaps it's a holdover from or an institutional memory of the Karajan decades . . .

It was the performance of the Finale itself that I found least satisfying. It seemed episodic and tentative, with awkward transitions, adding up to something less than the sum of its parts. This was not a weakness of the uncompleted Finale itself, or of the movement as completed by SPCM—I find the recordings of various editions of the SPCM completion conducted by Friedemann Layer, Kurt Eichhorn, Johannes Wildner, Daniel Harding, and Marcus Bosch to hang together more seamlessly and committedly, and to make more internal sense, than did either of the Rattle/Berlin performances I heard (at Carnegie on February 24, and the live webcast from the Berlin Philharmonie of February 9, the latter archived here and viewable for €9.90). But, as Rattle himself said in his video introduction to the live webcast on the BPO's website, there is no performance tradition for the Finale—the movement was entirely new to the orchestra, which had only a few rehearsals of it before the concert. It will be interesting to hear what EMI's engineers and editors assemble for the CD edition, to be released May 22 (Wagner's birthday), from the three Berlin performances and a patch session.

But while I expected more from such a fine conductor and orchestra, I was happy to hear them performing this music at all. And this newest, 2011 edition of the SPCM Finale, with newly condensed coda, really does work beautifully. The realization of the completers that Bruckner's remark about concluding the symphony with a quotation of the "Alleluia" from "the second movement" is likely to have indicated not the eventual second movement, the Scherzo (as long assumed, though that never quite made sense), but the rising figure on trumpets beginning in bar 5 of the Adagio (which may well still have been the second movement when Bruckner made the remark), must have been one of those forehead-slapping moments: Of course! I think it works wonderfully.

A special treat for me was a long lunch with John A. Phillips, one of the four members of the SPCM team. I felt fortunate to be able to hear his stories of the various stages of the completion, and of the discovery of just how much of the Finale Bruckner had completed, and how many of those pages had survived, and how many sketches applied to the missing coda, from the man who, as much as anyone, has discovered those many connections.—Richard Lehnert

COMMENTS
foscari's picture
Submitted by foscari on April 20, 2011 - 9:25am

Dear Richard Lehnert-First of all let me tell you that I have had no musical education. The fact that I love Bruckners music is that even though I am Jewish Atheist I have a lot of empathy for Bruckner and it one of the main reasons I cannot take even the latest finale of the 9th, seriously as the ending of the symphony.
I am just not sure how ill Bruckner was when trying to compose this finale but I expect that it was not just very serious physical illness but mental illness as well.
Thankfully, in my opinion he saw that he could not finish the work, even if his doctor Richard Heller said that he had played the coda to him, and finished his third movement with his "farewell to life" and this is my main point. I do not believe that the fourth move would have begun with the dissonance and fragmented music we hear after the way he finished the third movement. I do believe that the third movement would of finished in dissonance similar to ending of the first movement , left completely stark like the hellish dissonant utterances before the "farewell to life".
I just dont dont think through his health he was capable of completing , in my opinion, after the three greatest movements in the Symphonic repertory. You may say "what about the chorale"? Yes but the chorale in itself is knowhere enough . Alot of what was Bruckner reminds of music going back to remnants of the "Nulte". I happen to very much like the nulte, but this is a different world to this 20th century Bruckner.We are hearing late Mahler, Schostakovitch, Prokoviev and even early Schoenberg in this style. It is unique for the 19th century. Then we get this throwback.The Chorale is brilliantly arranged from the wide open chords we hear towards the end of the third, which has great similarity to the opening of the Tallis Fantasia by Vaughn Williams. I suspect Bruckner was able to compose this chorale during some kind of remission.
I am happy to hear these reconstructed finales as a very good curiosity. Perhaps Hans Zimmer was even inspired to compose his minimilistic ending to The Da Vinci Code after hearing this minimilistic theme after the reintroduction of the Chorale towards the end although I suspect that Carragan actualy "arranged" this.
However for me, I will take the three movements as Bruckners last "words".
You see Mr Lehnert as I have no musical education I can make up a conspiracy theory that we do hear something like Bruckners intentions for his coda to his beloved " Lord". Maybe , just maybe, Gustav Mahler paid his professeur a "late" visit and we hear this coda in The Resurrection !

Kind Regards From Barry Bernstein
London

sjlevine34's picture
Submitted by sjlevine34 on November 11, 2012 - 4:31pm

I disagree with Mr. Bernstein.  Also being a Jew and an agnostic (leaning toward theistic), I have found the Finale of the 9th quite captivating and convincing.  While the movement's structure appears unusually tight for the composer, listening to the fragments as performed by Harnoncourt convinces one that it is what Bruckner intended.   And the music, I feel, is the composer at his finest.

dalethorn's picture
Submitted by dalethorn on October 6, 2014 - 3:54pm

It seems that the data is mostly there, but the interpretation is in dispute. Not much different from Bible text then.

dieter's picture
Submitted by dieter on June 2, 2015 - 3:31am

Hi Guys
I'm not sure what being Jewish has to do with Bruckner: I'm a Goy, I love Mahler, so what.
I feel haunted by the reconstructed last movement of the 9th: it's awesome music, so Bruckner. I confess that Bruckner is up there with Bach and Beethoven in my Pantheon.

Terril's picture
Submitted by Terril on August 10, 2015 - 8:32am

I'm half jewish :) And a Bruckner lover for many decades. I found that it was quite difficult to fully "Grok" this finale for some time even though I can usually "grok" any music almost instantaneously. For example any oriental music some of which I learnt to play. My musical meducation is though quite limited. The version by Friedeman Layer of the finale I find absolutely inspiring and I consider it the greatest movement from a bruckner symphony. I far prefer it to the Berlin under Rattle, whether thats because of the altered reconstruction or Rattles conception I don't know.

damian101's picture
Submitted by damian101 on December 31, 2023 - 7:57pm

I enjoy the Josephson completion a lot, the best recording of it is Aarhus Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Gibbons. Very much worth checking out.

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