Anton Bruckner (1824-1896)
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, WAB 109 (1887-96)
(Realisation of Finale by SPCM, revised by John A. Phillips)
Hallé/Kahchun Wong
rec. live & in rehearsal, 26 October 2024, The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, UK
Hallé CDHLD7566 [2 CDs: 89]
To mark the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth, in 2024 the Hallé, under its new principal conductor and artistic advisor, Kahchun Wong, performed in concert Bruckner’s unfinished Symphony No. 9 in D minor. Wong chose to conduct a performing version of the fourth movement Finale and I’m delighted that it was recorded and released here on the Hallé’s own label.
I fully agree with Wong that the Ninth given in the three completed movements, culminating with the Adagio, ends perfectly, but he also acknowledges that Bruckner envisaged a fourth movement Finale. Plagued by deteriorating health, tormented and anguished, despite his frailty Bruckner had been working on the Finale right up to the time of his death. Fearing that he wouldn’t complete the symphony Bruckner even expressed a desire for his Te Deum of 1884 to serve as the fourth movement. The Finale was left incomplete by Bruckner leaving behind some complete pages and various fragments and sketches.
Based on Bruckner’s surviving manuscripts, several ‘completions’, or more accurately ‘realisations’, of the incomplete Finale have been undertaken. Notably there is a performing version completed by William Carragan premiered in 1983 with subsequent revisions. Other realisations of the unfinished Finale include those by the group of Nicola Samale, John A. Phillips, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs and Giuseppe Mazzuca known as SPCM (1985-2008/rev. 2010). Other realisations I know of include Nors S. Josephson (1992); Sébastien Letocart (2008); Gerd Schaller (2016, and its revision in 2018) and John A. Phillips’ own 2022 revision of the SPCM.
In the booklet notes Wong writes about the recording of the four-movement version by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2012 in Berlin, using the Nowak (1951 and the SPCM final Finale from 1992 and revised by Samale and Cohrs in 2012 (review ~ review). For the first three movements of this Hallé performance Wong is using a performing edition corrected and prepared by Kito Sakaya, but how Sakaya’s edition differs from Nowak’s is unclear. Like Rattle, Wong chose to use the SPCM realisation of the finale but in a new edition by J.A. Philips (2021-22). At the time of this recording Wong had been the Hallé’s new principal conductor for only a couple of months, so it comes as no surprise that the level of cohesion attained in the first movement by the partnership between Wong and the Hallé is slightly patchy. Compared to the firm and powerful orchestral sonority attained on recordings by both the Philharmonie Festiva under Gerd Schaller (2018) and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck (2018), Wong and the Hallé are a little disappointing; the near apocalyptic proportions Bruckner’s blocks of sound seem heavy and a touch rough around the edges. By comparison to Wong, the Philharmonie Festiva provide remarkable weight and power and Schaller remains steadfastly in control.
In the Scherzo, Bruckner forgoes his customary, rustic, Austrian Ländler for music of a dissonant character. Sounding more like a demonic dance, it can make a real impact with primitive pounding rhythms and unnerving pizzicato strings adding to the tension. Wand, Honeck and Schaller, for example, achieve a sinister and unsettling pizzicato and develop what I characterise as an inscrutably supernatural world. Wong seems more assured here in the Scherzo presiding over a splendid performance; nevertheless, compared to many of the finest recordings, an elevated sense of foreboding is absent.
Described by Bruckner as a ‘farewell to life’ the Adagio is one of the composer’s most sublime creations. In the convincing hands of Gunter Wand, Honeck and Schaller the movement can feel like a monumental portrayal of transcendental grandeur. A strong sense of resignation of death and anguished passion are captured. Goodness, how magnificent those Wagner tubas sound! Taking almost twenty-five minutes to perform it here, Wong seems assured, generating a satisfying level of power and drama. I find Bruckner’s Adagio to be a rewarding, effective, indeed perfect conclusion to the symphony and there have been occasions where I have attended performances of the Adagio that felt like truly spiritual experiences. Thus, I prefer the original three movement score and would never choose a recording solely for a realisation of the Finale. Nevertheless, it’s fascinating to have an approximation of what Bruckner might have written had he lived. There are several four movement performing versions of the Finale that have been realised from surviving manuscript fragments at various stages of progression. Without doubt there is some marvellous music. Some of the music that Bruckner left unfinished is mightily impressive, such as the chorale-like passages, the gorgeously melodic Trio, the exciting writing of the Schlußgruppe including the expansive Interlude with its joyous horns and the build up to the dramatic climax. There is also the tension filled and energetic Coda, and the riveting escalation to the thrilling apotheosis which concludes the movement.
Wong and the Hallé present this version of the fourth movement in a most positive light, in a performance containing much first rate playing and generating an intensity closer to that of the finest accounts but not always achieving the same unwavering consistency.
This was recorded live in concert but some patching was also carried out in the studio. The recording engineers have achieved warm clear, effective sound quality with virtually no extraneous noise to worry about – although the enthusiastic applause and cheering have been left in.
The competition from other three-movement recordings of the Ninth couldn’t be fiercer; there are celebrated versions from Abbado, Barenboim, Bernstein, Celibidache, Eschenbach, Gergiev, Giulini, Haitink, Honeck, Jochum, Karajan, Thielemann and Wand. My first-choice is conducted by Manfred Honeck with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in majestic form in a captivating performance. Recorded live in 2018 at Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh the Soundmirror team has provided Honeck and his musicians with first class sound on Reference Classics SACD (review). Of the longer established recordings of the three movement Ninth there is the magnificent live 1998 Berlin account from Günter Wand conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker on BMG/RCA Red Seal (review). My first ever recording of Bruckner Ninth and one I still value is the powerful 1964 account by Eugen Jochum and the Berliner Philharmoniker. Jochum is marvellously recorded in the renowned studio acoustic of the Jesus Christus Kirche, Berlin on Deutsche Grammophon.
Getting my vote as the most successful recording of the Finale realisation is Schaller’s own 2016 completion, in his 2018 revision. It’s an inspiring live performance by the Philharmonie Festiva; Schaller’s realisation seems the most coherent, and the most sympathetic to Bruckner’s distinctive sound world (review ~ review).
Michael Cookson Previous reviews: Ralph Moore (April 2025) ~ Nick Barnard (May 2025)
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