Composer: Anton Bruckner
Orchestra: Wiener Philharmoniker
Conductor: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: RCA
Catalogue: 82876543322
Release: 2003
Size: 504 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
CD 01
Wie ein Stein vom Mond
01. Warum hat man eigentlich 100 Jahre lang gedacht, es gäbe nichts von diesem 4. Satz
02. Dokumentation, Takt 1-278
03. Gegen Ende eine extreme Dissonanz in den Trompeten
04. Nach dem Ende der Durchführung folgt eine wilde Fuge
05. Dokumentation, Takt 279-342
06. Quasi ein Schreckbild des Todes
07. Dokumentation, Takt 343-478
08. Danach fehlen 16 Takte; dazu ist nichts zu erklären; wir spielen einfach nicht.
09. Dokumentation, Takt 479-510. Lücke/fehlender Partiturbogen: T. 511-526
Like A Stone From The Moon
10. Why did we think for over hundred years that nothing of this finale existed?
11. Documentation, mm. 1-278
12. Extreme dissonances in the trumpets towards the end of the block
13. At the end of the developmnet a wild fugue begins
14. Documentation, mm. 279-342
15. A sudden vision of death
16. Documentation, mm. 343-478
17. Then there are sixteen bars missing. We will just leave them out.
18. Documentation, mm. 479-510. Gap/missing score bifolio – mm. 511-226
CD 02
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109
01. I. Feierlich, misterioso
02. II. Scherzo. Bewegt, lebhaft – Trio. Schnell – Scherzo da capo
03. III. Adagio. Langsam, feierlich
Anyone who loves Bruckner’s music will want to hear this recording since it contains the Finale of his Symphony No. 9, the music which, according to Bruckner’s musical executors, never existed except in the mind of the dying composer. But while that story fooled generations of conductors into performing a three-movement version of the Ninth, musicologists have long known that most of the Finale existed in score and sketch at Bruckner’s death. But what the musicologists knew to be true has been almost completely ignored until this recording. Almost completely ignored because there have been three previous recordings of Ninth’s Finale over the past 20 years and all of them are far more compelling than this one by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Vienna Philharmonic. For one thing, all the other recordings of the Finales have been completed with the bits that Bruckner didn’t finish filled in, while Harnoncourt’s recordings only have the bits that Bruckner finished and interpolates a lecture to describe what’s missing. While this may be musicologically more accurate, in performance it is at best disruptive, at worst dull. For another thing, all the other Finales are performed with the overwhelming need to compel belief in the Finale while Harnoncourt himself seems unconvinced of its merits. But then, Harnoncourt’s recording of the three completed movements are just as unconvincing. In Harnoncourt’s performance, his opening movement alternates long stretches of quiet tedium with short bursts of loud bombast, his Scherzo alternates long stretches of loud hammering with short bursts of quiet inanity, and his Adagio alternates long stretches of loud, painfully dissonant music with shot bursts of louder, more painfully dissonant music. Harnoncourt’s recording doesn’t make a case for a four-movement Ninth; it doesn’t even make a case for a three-movement Ninth.