Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Symphony No.9 in D minor WAB 109 (4th movement completed and revised by SPCM)
Hallé/Kahchun Wong
rec. 2024, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK
Hallé CDHLD7566 [2 CDs: 88]
For his second commercial release, new Hallé principal conductor and artistic advisor Kahchun Wong has chosen one of the pinnacles of the symphonic repertoire, Bruckner’s Symphony No.9 in D minor. That would not be especially unusual, but Wong gives us the first commercial recording of the latest iteration of the completed finale. As far back as 1983, a four-person editorial team of Nicola Samale, John Phillips, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs and Giuseppe Mazzuca started a detailed study and survey of Bruckner’s extant sketches. Since the 1980’s this ‘SPCM’ completion has had over 80 performances and recordings and has been further refined and revised by the editorial team to the point that this latest version was premiered in concert in 2022. For the curious a quick search on YouTube for Eliahu Inbal and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra will reveal a fine live performance in full from June 2024. Trawling the every-excellent brucknerjournal.com website will reveal various extended and very detailed articles relating to the completion offered here. I am not enough of a Bruckner expert to address the various arguments or concerns regarding this completion. I happen to be a listener who enjoys hearing orchestrations or arrangements or completions of works left incomplete by their composers. The simple answer for those troubled by the ‘inauthenticity’ of such reconstructive work by third parties is just do not listen. I would suggest however, that while one can debate the ‘accuracy’ of the result or indeed the quality of the sketches that have been left to posterity [there are arguments that Bruckner physical and mental health was in such decline that this compromises the sketches he did write] there is no doubt as to the care and deep respect the editors have for the composer and the music.
Qualities that are very evident from the opening bars of this live recording. In the past I have not always been completely convinced by the technical aspect of the live recordings produced and engineered by Steve Portnoi for the Hallé but this strikes me as a complete success. The entire orchestra sounds just glorious – burnished and weighty, rich and full. The audience is noticeable only by its utter absence – no applause at the end either. Wong’s broad approach requires the work to be split across two discs with the complete symphony running to 88:24 which means that it becomes the longest Bruckner symphony – allowing for average not ‘heavenly’ lengths in performance. Wong’s opening Feierlich. Misterioso is measured and expansive running to 27:28 which is a good 2-3 minutes slower than the ‘usual’ suspects of Karajan, Jochum or Wand although Giulini in Vienna is slower still. I first imprinted on this work through the famous Bruno Walter Columbia SO performance which opens with 23:56. Compared to the craggy and unflinching Walter, Wong seems almost mellow and well-upholstered with the clashing dissonances somehow smoothed off and the sharp contrasts of dynamic or movement diminished.
This follows through into a Scherzo Bewegt, lebhaft that dances rather than crunches again at a relaxed tempo lasting 11:48 compared to Wand at 10:26 (Cologne RSO) or Jochum (Dresden) 9:57. Interestingly here Walter is almost identical at 11:35 but the character could hardly be more different – Walter stampingly implacable, almost harsh. The booklet notes that movements 1-3 are given in a performing edition “corrected and prepared” by Kito Sakaya but there is no further indication as to what those corrections might entail – to the innocent ear not a lot sounds different.
So at the point the discs need to be swapped over there is a sense that this is a beautiful but possibly slightly too well-mannered a performance. This impression carries over into the third movement Adagio, langsam feierlich. Again the playing of the orchestra is of the very highest calibre – quite beautifully poised with the engineering capturing the inner detail as well as solo lines with complete fidelity. In a previous review of this work I wrote of the famous climax to this movement; “Robert Simpson in his book “The Essence of Bruckner” [published Victor Gollancz 1967 rev. 1992] describes it as “… the tearing of a veil…. the opening of the gates of death.” That is a certainly a powerfully evocative description – rather more prosaically Bruckner piles a C sharp minor triad against an F sharp diminished with the C naturals giving a “missed octave”. Certainly, Walter – helped to some degree by the lack of technical sophistication of the 1960 recording – has a volcanic, elemental directness that never fails to move me. Likewise Wand produces a climax of near apocalyptic power, the brass slamming against each other in a battle of harmonic wills.” By that measure, Wong is powerful and impressive but without the sense of elemental opposition and final ascent into eternity that other performances seem to achieve.
But that is exactly the point – in this performance this is not the end. I realised that as the Finale Misterisoso nicht schnell progressed Wong has been playing a long game with great skill. Slowly the tension and ‘edge’ to this performance ratchets up through this final finale. Wong’s great skill is to make this movement both necessary and inevitable, not the usual sense 3+1 which can colour many ‘completed’ performances of Bruckner 9. I still do not feel that I have the familiarity or understanding of this completion that I do of the preceding movements but I also do not think I have heard any performance of any completion as convincing and effective as this. The allusions both to the earlier movements of the work as well as the Te Deum are clearly defined. In the liner Phillips suggests that; “if the Adagio was Bruckner’s farewell to life and encounter with death, he can only have intended the Finale, devout Catholic that he was, to chart the soul’s journey through Purgatory, and to end with its salvation in a great hymn of praise”. This is a lofty musical goal but in this completion I do sense that aspiration and certainly the Hallé in the closing pages unleash a power and majesty held in reserve that makes the closing pages both moving and very impressive. All credit to Wong and the players for so carefully pacing and graduating this exceptionally well-played and carefully prepared performance.
In the past, I have never been wholly convinced by the various performances of the various completions of this work that I have heard. Certainly I will not be avoiding any of my favourite ‘traditional’ 3 movement versions. In the liner Phillips makes the valid point that even though Bruckner never managed to produce a final version of the Finale as he envisioned it, neither did he ever expect the work to be performed as a three movement torso. His compromise suggestion of tagging on the Te Deum was pragmatic if flawed. There is a reasonable argument to be made that Bruckner might well have preferred any respectful version of the finale to the three movements alone that he bequeathed us. Kahchun Wong adds a personal note to the liner; “I hope this recording provides not just a hypothetical exploration but a compelling and cathartic experience of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, adding meaningfully to the rich legacy of interpretations we cherish”. Just so and well said.
Nick Barnard
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Previous review: Ralph Moore (April 2025)
