Why did so many of music’s great symphonists die after completing their ninth symphony? We’ll sample five landmark compositions: the ninth symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, Dvorák and Mahler.
Monday
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 in d minor, IV + excerpts
CSO/Solti
Lon 417 800
:54, :44, :52, 1:30, 24:33
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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 in d minor, II + excerpts
Berlin Phil/Karajan
DG 421 987
15:53, :18,
1:08
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Beethoven: Fantasia in C minor, Op. 80, Choral Fantasy (excerpts)
New York Phil/Bernstein; Serkin, p.
Sony 47522
1:26, 1:01
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Tuesday
Schubert: Symphony No. 9, D. 944, I, II, IV
Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Abbado
DG 423656
16:34, :12, 15:21, 15:25
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Schubert: Symphony No. 9, D. 944 (excerpts)
Berlin Phil/Furtwängler
DG 427 781
:16, 1:20, 1:04
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Wednesday
Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95/B 178, From the New World, I, III
Berlin Phil/Kubelik
DG 423 120
9:23, 8:04, :09
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Dvorák: Symphony No. 9, II
Dvorák Festival Orchestra of New York/Richman
Music & Arts 1078
12:14
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Dvorák: Sonatina for Violin and Piano in G major, Op. 100/B 183
Suk, p.; Mayorga, p.
Music & Arts 1078
4:04
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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (excerpt)
CSO/Solti
Lon 417 800
:05
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Dvorák: Symphony No. 9, IV
Czech Phil/Talich
EMI 75483-2
11:15
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Trad., arr. Burleigh: “Deep River”
Dvorák Festival Orchestra of New York/Richman
Music & Arts 1078
2:31
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Thursday
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in d minor, WAB 109, I (excerpt), II
Royal Concertgebouw Orch/Haitink
Phi 442 049
1:17, 11:13
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 9, III
CSO/Solti
Lon 417 295
26:52
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Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D Major, III
Vienna Phil/Abbado
DG 423 564
12:25
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Friday
Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D Major, I
Vienna Phil/Abbado
DG 423564
27:17
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Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D Major, IV
Vienna Phil/Walter
EMI 62965
18:10
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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, Op. 125 in d minor (excerpt)
Berlin Phil/Karajan
DG 421 987
2:32
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Hello, Bill McLaughlin –
I was surprised and disappointed to hear you say last night, of Bruckner’s Symphony No.9, that its third movement, the Adagio, was “all he wrote.”
This is not true. Bruckner probably completed the through-composition of the Finale, and definitely completed the orchestration of the great bulk of that movement (which no doubt would have run some 25 minutes). The story of why so many – including, evidently, yourself – believe that little or nothing exists, or ever did exist, of the Finale of the 9th is long and complex, but in recent decades a great deal about it has been learned, revealed, and discovered. In fact, in late February I will be attending, in New York, a concert by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic of the 9th that includes the latest edition of the reconstruction and completion of the Finale by Samale, Mazzuca, Phillips, and Cohrs. There are recordings of this edition’s several previous editions, as well as recordings of the completions by Carragan and Letocart.
You can read a detailed survey of those recordings, and a concise summary of the history of a century’s worth of misunderstandings of the Finale’s degree of completion, at http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/bruckners_symphony_no9_finally_a_ifinalei/
Richard Lehnert
rlehnert@earthlink.net
Please note that I misspelled my own last name (!) in the above reply. It should be Lehnert.
Thanks.