Composer: Anton Bruckner
Orchestra: Symphonie-Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Conductor: Mariss Jansons
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: BR Klassik
Catalogue: 900173
Release: 2019
Size: 570 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (Live)
01. I. Feierlich, misterioso
02. II. Scherzo. Bewegt, lebhaft – Trio. Schnell
03. III. Adagio. Langsam feierlich
It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. […] Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter.’ Arnold Schoenberg wrote those words in reference to Gustav Mahler, who had just died without ever having heard his own Ninth Symphony performed. Bruckner was apparently afraid of the fatal number as well: ‘I don’t want to start on my Ninth at all, I don’t dare’. However, very soon after the completion of his Eighth Symphony in September 1887, Bruckner started on his first drafts. Overall, work on the Ninth then dragged on over the long period from 1887 to 1896, having to be constantly interrupted because of the composer’s deteriorating health. Bruckner finally died while working on the fourth movement – and his masterpiece dedicated to ‘the beloved God’ remained unfinished. Even without a finale, the three-movement torso that survives is, of course, extremely impressive.
The prolific Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons, despite his general orientation toward the late Romantics, rarely conducted Bruckner over most of his long career. That all changed in the late 2010s with a series of Bruckner recordings, including a cycle with Jansons’ current band, the Sinfonieorchester des bayerischen Rundfunks (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra). Some believe that conductors should wait until late middle age before attempting Bruckner, and indeed they can point to this fine recording of the Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109, as evidence. The work was left unfinished at Bruckner’s death; various completions of the partially finished finale exist, but Jansons makes a powerful case for performing only the torso. Sample the 22-minute finale, which seems to end on a mystical plane in Jansons’ deliberate reading. Jansons actually recorded the Ninth just three years before the 2019 release of this album, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, but Bruckner lovers may wish to have both versions, for Jansons does not repeat himself. This reading is several minutes slower than the RCO version, as if Jansons wanted to broaden the scope of the earlier limpid, transparent reading. He keeps the transparency, though, and both of the 20-minute-plus outer movements unfold with a deep pulse that is essential to Bruckner. The music moves along in waves that may bring to mind the work of Jansons’ first major teacher, Yevgeny Mravinsky. The Bavarian Radio players are native to the music of this period, and they realize Jansons’ level of detail in a way that even other top-rank orchestras might not. Special praise must be directed toward the orchestra’s house engineering staff (the album appears on the orchestra’s own BR Klassik label), who separate out the various strands of this complex work with awesome clarity.