Customer Reviews

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (with Documentation of the Finale Fragment) ~ Harnoncourt

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As the other reviewers note, this release is essential for anyone interested in this work, for the workshop and documentation of the currently surviving material from the final movement of the symphony. Another important aspect of the release is the use of a new "critical edition" of the initial three movements of Bruckner's 9th, which contains a number of very evident modifications, particularly in orchestration. All the same, it is a concert recording, and, at least in the usual CD format, balances aren't always optimal, trumpets and trombones often too forward, at the expense of the Vienna Phil's strings and (especially) glorious horn section, and timpani are somewhat reticent, especially in the first movement. Harnoncourt also tends to push a bit hard, lacking the natural plasticity in tempo that marks the greatest performances of the first three movements of this work. The impression is one of roaring power, building and receding throughout. Of the 4th movement sketches, Harnoncourt plays exactly what survives, except he omits the 50-odd bars of three coda fragments that have turned up.

Just a few months ago, a recording of the 9th including a reconstruction/completion of the 4th movement, based on the same body of fragments and sketches (including the coda) and prepared by the same editors, was released on Naxos(8.555933-34). The orchestra is the New Philharmonia of Westphalia (Germany) and the conductor is Johannes Wildner. Now, finally, we can hear this work in a form tantalizingly close to the way Bruckner intended. Furthermore, unlike Harnoncourt's Vienna Phil performance, Wildner and his astonishiingly capable Westphalians present what I can only describe as a ferocious performance, with horns and timpani cutting through the fabric of the orchestra at key points, and effectively flexible tempos. It's a performance unlike any I've heard since Furtwangler's furious and terrifying recording made in Berlin during the darkest days of World War II. If you've gotten the Harnoncourt (or even if you haven't), you have to get the Wildner, too.

As an aside, these recordings render superfluous the 1986 Chandos recording by Yoav Talmi and the Oslo Phil of a 4-movement version of Bruckner's 9th. That documented a brave effort by William Carragan to reconstruct a finale. Unfortunately he had barely 3/4 of the body of sketches to work with that we have now, and nothing of the coda at all.

In his talk on the second disc, Harnoncourt asserts that Bruckner essentially completed the 4th Movement, except for the orchestration, and that the missing (numbered) pages of the manuscript were probably taken as curios or momentos by admirers shortly after his death. The commentary and 4th Movement excerpts are fascinating, leading to the impression that this incredible masterpiece is even more so than we had the temerity to believe.

The live performance of the torso (a new critical edition by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs) is exciting and clarifying, though I concur with the previous reviewer's comments about the Giulini performance. The sound of the CD layer is typical of RCA--very good, but a little less in-your-face than on DG.

I have also listened to the SACD stereo layer, and it is practically a different animal. Instrumental groups that are somewhat de-emphasized or out of focus on the CD layer come through with stunning immediacy and precision. Unlike a number of other SACD's I own, it makes an impressive case for the new format. Unfortunately, I'm not equipped to comment on the surround sound layer.

This is the most gratifying Bruckner release to come along in some time. Don't miss it, especially at such a great price!

This is an immensely valuable document, and is worth much more than the purchase price for the first CD alone. The first CD is a workshop that Harnoncourt conducted during the Salzburg Festival, 2002 on the elusive 4th mvmt. of Bruckner's 9th. It is extraordinary to learn how close Bruckner was to a complete manuscript of this movement. Harnoncourt's bilingual (in German, tracks 1-9, then English) commentary is filled with insights and reflects his deep knowledge and love for Bruckner's text and idiom. A must for Bruckner devotees, this CD will also provide fascinating listening for those new to Bruckner's music.

The second CD has the actual performance, recorded live after the workshop. This is a new critical edition (Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs) of the the first three movements. Bruckner's vast and complex landscape is lovingly painted by Harnoncourt and the VPO. Every detail is ravishingly rendered by the superb sectional playing of the Viennese (note, for example, the luminous pizzicato exchanges starting at 2:59 in 1st mvmt). Some versions, notably Giulini/VPO/DG, have a greater sense of mystery, especially in the last movement. Maybe this is intentional on Harnoncourt's part--he seems to not interpret the great adagio as a final document. Many great recordings have treated the adagio's last peroration as Bruckner's passing over to the great other, as it were (none more so than Celibidache/Munich PO/EMI). Harnoncourt seems to suggest that there is more!

All in all, this is a very fine recording. Perhaps not the definitive Bruckner 9th, but one that will have great appeal to the Bruckner initiate.

Even Karajan's detractors, except for the most severe, generally concede that he was supreme in Bruckner. His various performances of the Ninth Sym. with the Berlin Phil. are commanding in their huge scope, yet Karajan was also capable of delicate phrasing and had an intuitive grasp of how to organize these gigantic, sprawling movements. No one has quite reached that magistreial level since. To his credit, Harnoncourt doesn't try to. This is, for him, a straightforward performance that relies on some qualities Karajan's Bruckner doesn't possess.

First of all, Harnoncourt has his own instincts about phrasing and organizing the music. Contrary to a reviewer below, he doesn't exploit extreme rubato or sudden tempo changes. There are some quirky moments where the tempo speeds up unexpectedly, but overall, Harnoncourt's timing of 58 min. is dead center among various recordings (as much as I admire Giulini, his 68 min. traversal drags). Harnoncourt favors brash outbursts from the brass, particularly in the Scherzo, my least favorite movement here. But his main intent is to keep Bruckner simple, to impose himself far less than Karajan did with his ultra-control. This Bruckner Ninth is a bit plain at times, but it always breathes.

As to the recorded sound, I have only heard the regular two-channel CD, which is quite clear; the Vienna Pphil. is placed a bit far back on a wide soundstage. I would have liked to hear the solo winds up closer, but that's a quibble. This Bruckner Ninth satisfied me as much as the great accounts by Walter, Klemperer, Giulini, and Boulez. I sitll feel more thrills from Karajan's analog reading from the Sixties, yet Harnoncourt provides a viable alternative in itnerpretation.

In theory it was an exciting notion to provide a free bonus CD containing Harnoncourt's defense of Bruckner's surviving sketches for a fourth movement, never completed. Could it really be that his ocntemporaries were wrong and that Bruckner left us pages of great music begging to be revived? Harnoncourt's talk is highly persuasive, but when the Vienna Phil. actually plays what survives of the finale, it proves as sorely disappointing as its reputation would lead one to believe.

Harnoncourt's outings in Bruckner have been oddly variable. The nadir is his absolutely snooze-fest of a Fourth, while his Third, Seventh, and Eighth have been inconsistently impressive. However, his recordings in Vienna are uniformly excellent, especially here in this most impressive Ninth.

Or course, a great deal of credit must go to the Philharmonic, which can give good Bruckner in its sleep. The string tone in the adagio is predictably gorgeous while the contributions from the winds and horns especially are particularly effective. But Harnoncourt deserves as much of the credit for getting his Viennese players to abandon their standard silvery tone when necessary, such as in the tutti passages from the scherzo and the final outburst in the adagio. The stark, bleak tone the orchestra gives, when necessary, gives this performance its general tone of darkness. This performance is also notable in that, most of Harnoncourt's ideas work. It would not be a Harnoncourt performance without some weird moments here and there (such as the weird dynamic swells that afflict the first movement's third theme group), but all in all we find Harnoncourt delivering a perfectly paced, brilliantly argued, and all together thoroughly logical performance of Bruckner's unfinished masterpiece.

Harnoncourt also seems to come up with the most logical conclusion for the finale, playing what Bruckner wrote after an at times interesting lecture. Even hearing the few disjointed pieces that do remain gives the listen enough of an idea as to what Bruckner may have intended for his finale. Better still, it informs the remainder of the symphony, bringing back leitmotifs from the previous movements in various guises.

There are plenty of great Ninths. Jochum's certainly remains the most terrifying, but Gulini, Dohnanyi, Karajan, and Wand have all given us excellent performances, Still, Harnoncourt's live account from Salzburg must stand with the best, a performance that must be commended for its stark beauty and it overarching architecture. Any Bruckner fan will find much to enjoy about this performance. The live recording features a somewhat dry acoustic.

The description on the back of the album of the first disc is a "workshop concert", although Maestro Harnoncourt in both its German and English tracks warns the audience that they are about to see a workshop and not a concert. I find the conductor's description more accurate. English speaking listeners should just proceed to tracks 10 to 18, since the German and English programs are virtually identical. The idea in this album is to present the music of the 4th movement that Bruckner composed, except for the minimal few bars of the coda, which he claims gives no idea of how the coda ought to have sounded. Some of the music is not fully - to use the Maestro's term - instrumentated, and it is played as such. The first 271 bars of the finale are fully scored. The extant music in places is very strange and has dissonant brass writing, and in others has a magisterial quality very reminiscent of the final movement of the 5th symphony, with apparently both works having a fugue. The conductor also mentions that some pages of the score are missing and issues a plea to collectors to check their attics in case they can be recovered. At the time of Bruckner's death, it appears parts of the score were removed from his home and kept as momentoes.

This discussion strikes me as a middle ground between performing a complete reconstructed version of the finale, as has been done elsewhere, and just the first three movements alone. With alternating commentaries and playing, it does not have the feel of a concert performance, but more of a documentary. After hearing it a second time, I found the experience very enjoyable, although with the music abruptly fading to silence at the end, was left hoping for more to come someday. This commentary disc is a conventional CD. The Wildner recording of the full 4 movements on Naxos has been mentioned elsewhere, and that can be recommended alongside this disc.

The first three movements on the second hybrid disc - which appear to have been performed after intermission at the same venue - are very well played, and in standard CD format, offer excellent, richly detailed sound quality, among the best I have ever heard for this work. I have not yet played the disc in Super Audio. The Maestro's tempi are brisker than usual, which may be offputting to some listeners, especially in the Scherzo, but I liked the interpretation. I wish Eugen Jochum had been afforded sound of this quality in his first cycle for DGG.

The notes by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs, who has worked on a full version of the finale, are well written and also include a plea to help find the missing musical material - complete with his address. Based on the distinction of what is heard in this album, I hope someday the nearly full finale as Bruckner may well have wrote it sees the light of day.

The most intriguing part, and what gives this recording a unique flavour and sense of purpose, is Harnoncourt's workshop in English and German. It contains a public appeal. In case someone missed it, it is spelled out in clear by Gunnar Cohrs in the booklet:

"[I] WOULD BE MOST HAPPY TO RECEIVE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THE LOCATION OF UNKNOWN BRUCKNER MANUSCRIPTS AND DOCUMENTS, WHICH WILL, OF COURSE BE TREATED IN CONFIDENCE. EVEN PHOTOCOPIES SENT ANONYMOUSLY, IF PREFERRED, WOULD BE OF INVALUABLE ASSISTANCE."

Followed by a street address in Germany. It would be terrific if the complete finale showed up one day as a result.

The VPO is in great form. Recorded sound and performance are excellent, and the price is right. Go for it.

first, great recording, absolutely_it's a super audio CD. Next, its unique, 'cause the orchestra plays fragments which are believed to have been parts of the missing last movement.

The symphony recording is damn good, and the extras are very interesting (to hear Harnoncourt speaking German and English, to hear the sketches of the last movement). In my mind, this ranks among the very best -- with Celibidache on EMI, Giulini on DG, Bernstein on DG, and don't forget the second movement of the Jochum on EMI.

First off, I do not like the performance. Harnoncourt's tempi are erratic, particularly in the adagio (where he speeds up the second theme-group to the point he cheapens it).

Secondly, I found his commentary on the 4th movement "chunks" informative. They could easily have been printed in liner notes; instead, we have each of the chunks played twice, followed first by commentary German, then in English.

Thirdly, I see no reason why he should not have recorded the full movement as completed by someone -- by William Carragan (Chandos: Yoav Talmi, Oslo Philharmonic); by Nicola Samale & Giuseppe Mazzuca (Teldec: Inbal, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orch [with the 5th Symphony]); or by Samale, Mazzuca, and John A Phillips (Camerata: Eichhorn, Linz Bruckner Orch). My first choice is the Carragan: though the Oslo band takes third place among those in these recordings, it is good enough and I find Carragan's completion the most convincing.*

(In January 1984 I went to New York and Carnegie Hall to hear the American Symphony Orchestra perform the premier of the 9th with Carragan's finale. The performance was reviewed the next day in the Times. I immediately wrote Joel Flegel, editor of Fanfare, asking if he knew whether a recording was planned. Joel was dubious and dismissive: "If that college professor really....")

As Carragan noted in his program notes for the ASO "premier," the finale includes the greatest of Bruckner's chorales. That magnificent theme cannot be understood or appreciated by hearing it only in Harnoncourt's chunks. It needs to be heard in context -- and that context can only be provided in a "performing version."

In my opinion, Harnoncourt does a disservice to Bruckner and to listeners by not offering a completed finale. There is certainly room for one in this two-disk set.

* But Carragan will either produce a new version or be superseded as pages not available to him have since been found -- and as still more come to light.