Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

Released on 04/08/2003 by RCA Red Seal
Main artists: Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Genre: Classical

Available in

16-Bit/44.1 kHz Stereo

Unlimited Streaming

Listen to this album in high quality now on our apps

Start my trial period and start listening to this album

Enjoy this album on Qobuz apps with your subscription

Digital Download

Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

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.

© TiVo

More info

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

Nikolaus Harnoncourt

You are currently listening to samples.

Listen to over 100 million songs with an unlimited streaming plan.

Listen to this playlist and more than 100 million songs with our unlimited streaming plans.

From £10.83/month

Wie ein Stein vom Mond - Gesprächskonzert: Sinfonie Nr. 9 d-moll WAB 109, Finale (unvollendet) - Dokumentation des Fragments (Hrsg. von John A. Phillips) (Various Composers)

Warum hat man eigentlich 100 Jahre lang gedacht, es gäbe nichts von diesem 4. Satz

00:11:12

Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Author, Main Artist, Speaker, Author, Speaker - Friedemann Engelbrecht, Producer - Michael Brammann, Recording Engineer - René Möller, Assistant Engineer - Philipp Knop, Editor