Symphony No. 9 (Bruckner)


Symphony No. 9 in D minor is the last symphony on which Anton Bruckner worked, leaving the last movement incomplete at the time of his death in 1896; Bruckner dedicated it "to the beloved God". The symphony was premiered under Ferdinand Löwe in Vienna in 1903.

Dedication

Bruckner is said to have dedicated his Ninth Symphony to "the beloved God". August Göllerich and Max Auer, in their biography of Bruckner, Ein Lebens- und Schaffensbild, claim he expressed to his doctor, Richard Heller, this dedication of his work saying:

Genesis

Immediately after completing the first version of his Eighth Symphony on 10 August 1887, Bruckner began work on his Ninth. First draft sketches, which are stored in the Jagiellońska Library, Kraków, are dated 12–18 August 1887. Additionally, the first score of the first movement is dated 21 September 1887.
However, the work on the first movement was soon interrupted. The conductor Hermann Levi, to whom Bruckner had just sent the score of his Eighth, found the orchestration impossible and the working-out of the themes "dubious", suggesting that Bruckner rework it. Bruckner set to revising it in 1888. During the revision of his Eighth, he also revised his Third Symphony from March 1888 to March 1889.
In the midst of revising his Eighth and Third, on 12 February 1889, Bruckner began to prepare his Second Symphony for publication. On 10 March 1890, he completed his Eighth before making further revisions of his First and Fourth Symphonies and his F minor Mass.
Bruckner announced in a letter dated February 18, 1891 to the reviewer Theodor Helm, "Loud secrets today. H. Doctor! 3rd secret. The Ninth Symphony has begun." concealing the fact that his first sketches of the Ninth had been written nearly four years earlier. Bruckner then composed two choral-symphonic works, a setting of the 150th Psalm and the male choral work Helgoland.
On 23 December 1893, the first movement of the Ninth was completed after six years. The Scherzo, sketched as early as 1889, was completed on 15 February 1894. Bruckner composed three successive versions of the Trio:
The Adagio was completed on 30 November 1894. With regard to the final movement, the following entry can be found in Bruckner's calendar: "24. Mai 895 1.mal Finale neue Scitze". Overall, the work on the Ninth stretched over the long period from 1887 to 1896 and had to be interrupted repeatedly due to revisions to other works and Bruckner's deteriorating health. Bruckner died during the work on the fourth movement, before completing the symphony.

First performance

The first three movements of the Ninth were premiered in Vienna, in the Wiener Musikvereinssaal on 11 February 1903 by the Wiener Concertvereinsorchester, the precursor of the Wiener Symphoniker, under the conductor Ferdinand Löwe in his own arrangement. Löwe profoundly changed Bruckner's original score by adapting Bruckner's orchestration in the sense of a rapprochement with Wagner's ideal of sound, and made changes to Bruckner's harmony in certain passages. He published his altered version without comment, and this edition was long regarded as Bruckner's original. In 1931, the musicologist Robert Haas pointed out the differences between Löwe's edition and Bruckner's original manuscripts. The following year, conductor Siegmund von Hausegger performed both the Löwe-edited and the original Bruckner score, so that the actual premiere of the first three movements of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony took place on 2 April 1932 in Munich. The first recording was made by Hausegger with the Munich Philharmonic in the original version in April 1938.

Stylistic classification

Bruckner's Ninth Symphony represents an important link between late romanticism and modernity. With the Ninth, Bruckner not only opens up new soundscapes through the emancipation of dissonance that Wagner had already achieved, but also achieves a new dimension by separating individual chords from once firmly established sound connections in the harmony, as it is continued, for example, by Arnold Schoenberg. On the long symphonic tracks Bruckner expands the form extremely. Thus, Bruckner's use of structure in his Ninth Symphony makes him a pioneer of modernism.
As pointed out by Hans-Hubert Schönzeler, Bruckner had "his roots in the music of Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert". At the same time, however, Bruckner is also regarded as one of the key innovators of late 19th-century harmony alongside Franz Liszt. In the Ninth Symphony, Bruckner consistently continues his chosen symphonic path by adhering to the sonata form. At the same time he expands the form and enhances it to the monumental. The expansion of the orchestra apparatus is also an expression of this mass increase. The Bruckner researcher Alfred Orel states:
According to Ekkehard Kreft, "the phases of improvement in the Ninth Symphony take on a new significance, as they serve to shape the character from the starting point of the thematic complex to its final destination." Both in the first sentence and in the final movement this is expressed in a hitherto unknown dimension. The entry of the main theme is preceded by a harmoniously complicated increase phase. The use of this increasingly complex harmony makes Bruckner the pioneer of later developments. The musicologist Albrecht von Mossow summarizes this with regard to the Ninth as follows: "To the material developments of modernity must be attributed to Bruckner as with other composers of the 19th century, the increasing emancipation of dissonance, the chromatization of harmony, the weakening of tonality, the touch of the Triadic harmonics through the increased inclusion of four- and five-tone sounds, the formal breaks within his symphonic movements, and the revaluation of timbre to an almost independent parameter."
In the Ninth Symphony, the great waves of increase frequently lead to a subsequent process of decay. The music psychologist Ernst Kurth expresses this process of development, climax and decay, and speaks of the "inner space symbolism of a contrast of sound-specific breadth and emptiness compared to the previous compression and summit position." In his book on Bruckner, he draws the immediate parallel to Stockhausen, "and to his half-hour work 'Gruppen' for three orchestras, because structure is likewise not so much in the linear genesis, but in the tearing, the dismemberment of the individual apparatus will be shown. As with Bruckner, it is not just about the transfer of the spatial sound conception on the instrumental apparatus, often referred to by interpreters as 'registration', but also to the wealth of types of sound, of colors, of characters."
The fugue is extraordinary for its prominent position in the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, although the inclusion of a fugue in the symphonic context of Bruckner is not uncommon. As Rainer Bloss explained : "The main theme of the finale of the 9th Symphony has a peculiarity, because its form is changed, transformed in its last two bars.... Bruckner's 'unusual' two-bar extension demonstrates this modular regression exceptionally".
Bruckner increasingly refines his technique of citation in the Ninth Symphony. Paul Thissen sums it up in his analysis : "Undoubtedly, the form of integration of quotations used by Bruckner in the Adagio of the Ninth Symphony shows the most differentiated appearance. It ranges from mere montage technique to the penetration of the sequence with transformations similar to Kyrie".

Description

The symphony has four movements, although the finale is incomplete and fragmentary:
Much material for the finale in full score may have been lost very soon after the composer's death; some of the lost sections in full score survived only in two-to-four-stave sketch format. The placement of the Scherzo second, and the key, D minor, are only two of the elements this work has in common with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
The symphony is so often performed without any sort of finale that some authors describe "the form of this symphony … a massive arch, two slow movements straddling an energetic Scherzo."

Scoring

The score calls for three each of flutes, oboes, clarinets in B and A, bassoons, trumpets in F, and trombones, with eight horns, contrabass tuba, timpani and strings.

Performing time

First and second parts

The first movement in D minor is a freely designed sonata movement with three thematic groups. At the beginning, the strings in the tremolo intone the root note D, which is solidified in the third bar by the woodwinds. A first thematic nucleus sounds in the horns as a " tone repetition in the triple-dotted rhythm, from which the interval of the third, then the fifth dissolves, fits into the underlying metric order structure by caesurating strokes of the timpani and trumpets. A symphony can hardly begin more primitive, elemental, archetypal." The typical phenomenon of sound splitting for Bruckner occurs in bar 19: the root note D is dissociated into its neighboring notes E and D. A bold E major upswing of the horns announces something auspicious. As a result, an extended development phase prepares the entry of the main theme. Manfred Wagner points to the specificity of Bruckner's music, which underlies the principle of development and the exploration of sound: "Bruckner still believes in the compelling musical thought, but concludes it as the culmination of development, but he knows that in the future it will be much more about the circumstances, how something will be than what it will be." Bruckner's path to this theme creation is getting longer; it takes more and more time for the main idea to break out.
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The powerful main theme in the first movement impresses as the D minor sound space is first confirmed by the rhythmically striking octave transposition of the notes D and A, with a sudden deviation of the sound to C major, reinterpreted as a dominant to E minor. The theme follows a multiple cadence over C major and G minor to A major, and finally to D major, seeming to enter its decay phase, yet simultaneously transitioning to the lyrically cantabile side theme – the so-called singing period. This interval of falling in succession, which also plays a role in the unfinished fourth movement, forms an integral part of the lead motif of the singing period. Subsequently, Bruckner composes a pristine transitional phase, which is closely repeated between the second and third theme groups.
The second theme group shifts the music to A major and begins quietly. This section is played more slowly than the first and the violins carry the initial theme:
\relative c

The third theme group returns to D minor and prominently features the horns.
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This third theme group, with its five-four motif, has a strong affinity with the theme of Te Deum'' recurring in the finale. At the end of the transition, there is a pause on the note F, implemented seamlessly.
With regard to the formal design of the development and the subsequent reprise, Bruckner takes his symphonic path a step further by not separating the two parts, but merging them. As Alfred Orel emphasizes :

Third part

Finally, a summit point is reached in the third part of the main theme when a repeated transfer is omitted. An organ point, on the note A, slows down the movement and prepares the varied page set. The seemingly incomplete reprise begins; the three-part sonata form here returns to its original bipartite nature. The coda again dominates the material of the main theme, which is enhanced by a persistent, punctuated rhythm and the repeated juxtaposition of E major and D minor to a provisional, yet to be released apotheosis.
Bruckner's tendency to telescope sonata form development and recapitulation finds its fullest realization in this movement, the form of which Robert Simpson describes as "Statement, Counterstatement and Coda". An unusually large number of motifs are given in the first subject group, and these are substantially and richly developed on restatement and in the coda. The main theme of the movement, which is given by the full orchestra, contains an octave fall that is effectively in a quadruple-dotted rhythm.
Bruckner also cites material from his earlier works: at a point near the coda, Bruckner quotes a passage from the first movement of his Seventh Symphony. The concluding page of the movement, in addition to the usual tonic and dominant chords, given out in a blaze of open fifths, uses a Neapolitan flat in grinding dissonance with both I and V.

Second movement

The Scherzo in D minor unusually begins with an empty bar. After this pause, the woodwinds intone a distinctive rhythmic dissonance chord with the sounds E, G, B and C. This chord can be analyzed in several ways. The musicologist Wolfram Steineck gives the following explanation: "As undoubtedly the turn to C sharp minor can be heard, it is from the beginning also dominantly related to D minor, so at least ambiguous. It is the dominant note A, which is split into its two surrounding halftones and gives the sound its characteristic subdominant character, without taking the dominant part." Here, too, the phenomenon of tone splitting is significant. However, while the tone dissociation in the first movement concerned the tonic and was relatively late, in the Scherzo, immediately at the beginning, the note A located in the center of a dominant A major sixth chord is split into its neighbors G and B. The frame interval of this chord is the sixth, which is thematically and structurally woven in the Ninth.
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In his sketch on 4 January 1889, Bruckner's comment can be found: "E Fund Vorhalt auf Dom"; thus, according to Steinbeck, "the sound is also theoretic on E, but is dominant, e.g. 'Vorhalt' to the A major sound and thus stands in the fifth interval...". However, this characteristic chord can also be heard as a double-diminished fifth chord on C with a highly advanced fourth G, which is a ladder in harmonic minor on the seventeenth degree. In the end, his target point is the tone D or a D minor context, which is then reached after a complicated harmonic development phase. Almost violently, the Scherzo theme breaks through, energetically throbbing and contrasting with the ghostly introductory theme. In the middle part, the thematic material is further varied and receives an elegiac and sometimes even dance-like tone, after a return to the beginning of an energetic coda purposefully concludes.
Bruckner has composed three successive versions of the Trio:
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Third movement

First part

The three-part Adagio in E major "has experienced innumerable interpretations seeking to describe its mood and will undoubtedly experience these in the future." For example, Göllerich and Auer see the beginning "in the bleak mood of the erring Parsifal." In terms of compositional analysis, the phenomenon of tone splitting plays an integral role in this movement's beginning. The initial tone B is split or differs in its two neighboring notes C and A, whereby the distinctive ninth interval jump gives the beginning of the movement an intensive sound charge. The following chromatic downhill C, B, A, leads to a sudden crash of octaves, followed by diatonic upright phrases ending in a plaintive tone. Just as there is no other Scherzo by Bruckner that begins with a composed pause, Bruckner has composed "no other Adagio that raises without any accompaniment, with a unanimous melodic movement." However, this movement beginning was by no means planned from the beginning, as Bruckner's sketches and drafts prove. The rest of the strings and the Wagner tubas set themselves in full tone on the third beat of the second bar. The latter are used here for the first time in the Ninth Symphony, a delayed method Bruckner has used in his Seventh Symphony. Here, at the beginning of his mourning song for the death of Wagner, Bruckner calls for these instruments to enter, with their round and dark sound, for the first time. Unlike in the Ninth, however, the Adagio of the Seventh already begins with a full chord accompaniment. While in the Seventh, the basic key of C minor is set from the beginning, the basic key of E major in the Ninth is initially completely avoided, only called forth after a lengthy delay.
The striking, second part of the motif shows echoes of the so-called Dresden amen. As Clemens Brinkmann states in principle: "Under the influence of Mendelssohn and Wagner, Bruckner used the 'Dresden amen' in his church music and symphonic works". The third, brooding motif in pianissimo is marked by the "tired seconds of the double basses." In a lament, the first oboe swings up and becomes part of a sequencing phase that spirals steadily, eventually leading to the eruption of the fourth motif: a pentatonic trumpet call repeated in this key seven times without ever being modified " is presented on a tonally aimless chord face resulting from a multiple quintuplet. Michael Adensamer explains this in detail: "One could interpret at least four keys from this layering and still pass the character of this sound. This character lies in the manifold usefulness of the sound. You could extend it up or down until it covered all twelve tones. In this sense it is unlimited, infinite and basically atonal..." On this sound surface, the characteristic trumpet fans are literally staged and counterpointed by a fatefully unfurling horn motif. This motif quotes the expressive beginning of the sentence through the use of the wide-stretched void. The sounds ebb and flow into a mourning chorale by the horns and the Wagner tubas, which Auer and Göllerich, named after Bruckner's "farewell to life". Ernst Décsey also highlights this mourning passage, stating: "Bruckner called this passage when he played it to the two Helms, returning in 1894 from Berlin."
Near the end of the first theme group, a slowly descending chorale appears. This chorale is cited by Anton Bruckner as the "Farewell to Life". Played by the Wagner tubas, it is in B minor :
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The beginning of the second theme group presents a somewhat more melodic, lamenting theme on the violins:
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Its second theme, a soft vocal melody, the structure of which is sometimes "compared to the themes of the late Beethoven", undergoes numerous modifications and variations as it progresses. Immediately before the reentry of the main theme, the solo flute descends in a C major triverse above the pale sound primer of an altered-fifth F major seventh chord from the Wagner tubas, to remain on the sound F after a final tritone fall.

Second part

After a silence, the second part of the Adagio follows. This is largely based on the components of the main theme. The existing material presented is varied and further developed. The principle of tone splitting is also evident here, above all in the opposite voice of the flute, which as a new element forms a clear counterpoint to the main theme. Only now does the actual implementation work begin, in which the lead motif of the first theme is carried up by proudly walking basses. Afterwards, the milder tone of the varied lyrical theme dominates again. After a brooding intermediate phase, a renewed increasing wave rises, which leads to the climax of the implementation. Once again, trumpets are blaring their already familiar fanfare, which abruptly stop. This is followed by the middle part of the vocal theme, which also ends abruptly. Only the very last end of the phrase is taken up by the oboe and declared in the forte, stemming from the horn in the diminutive form and in the piano. After a general break, the movement quickly pushes open. The crescendo, which has been stretched over a long period, breaks off abruptly, followed by an almost shy-sounding pianissimo part from the woodwinds, which in turn leads to a chorale-like episode of strings and brass. In the opinion of Constantin Floros, there are two passages in the Adagio, each appearing only once and not to "recur in the further course of the composition. This applies once to the tuba at B. This applies to the other for the chorale-like episode, bars 155–162". This spherically-transfigured passage has its origin set structurally in the tubal chorale, decreasing with the chorale into the finale.

Third part

The third part of the slow movement begins with a figuratively animated reproduction of the second theme. Floros emphasizes that the Adagio of the Ninth, as well as the finale, "must be viewed against an autobiographical background." Bruckner composed his Ninth Symphony in the awareness of his approaching death. Accordingly, the existing self-citations such as the Miserere from the D minor Mass can also be understood in the sense of a religious connotation. In the third part, the two main themes are stacked atop each other and finally merge; all this takes place in the context of an enormous increase in sound. Bruckner creates a climax, "as if he sought their monumental, expressive power and intensity unparalleled in music history". The enormous accumulation of sound experiences a sharply dissonant discharge in the form of a figuratively extended thirteenth chord in bar 206. Then Bruckner, taking parts of the first theme and the Miserere, weaves a reconciling swan song. Finally, the Adagio of the Ninth ends, fading away; Kurth speaks of this as a "process of dissolution.": At an organ point on E, the Wagner tubas announce the secondary motif from the Adagio of the Eighth Symphony as the horns recall the beginning of the Seventh.
Bruckner called this movement his "Farewell to Life". It begins in tonal ambiguity, and is the most troubled opening to any Bruckner Adagio, although it achieves lyrical serenity and awe. The main theme is a portent for the chromaticism of the movement, starting with an upward leap of a minor ninth and containing all 12 tones of the chromatic scale:
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Throughout its course, the movement goes back to some of the troubled moods of the earlier movements. A call by the oboe – a quote of the Kyrie of Mass No. 3 – introduces the repeat of the first theme, which is underlined by dramatic trombone appeals. Shortly after, Bruckner also quotes, as a kind of supplication, the "Miserere nobis" from the Gloria of his Mass in D minor. The following final climax, given by the full orchestra, concludes on an extremely dissonant chord, a dominant thirteenth:
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\new PianoStaff \with
\new Staff \with
\new Staff \with
>>

Thereafter, in the most serene coda yet, the music alludes to the coda of the Adagio of Symphony No. 8, and also hints at Symphony No. 7. These bars of music conclude most live performances and recordings of the symphony, although Bruckner had intended for them to be succeeded by a fourth movement.

The incomplete fourth movement

Although Bruckner is supposed to have suggested using his Te Deum as the finale of the Ninth Symphony, there have been several attempts to complete the symphony with a fourth movement based on Bruckner's surviving manuscripts for the Finale. Indeed, Bruckner's suggestion has been used as a justification for completing the fourth movement, since, in addition to the existence of the fragments of the Finale, it shows, that the composer did not want this work to end with the Adagio.
The materials of this 4th movement have preserved various stages of the composition: from simple profile sketches to more or less completely prepared score sheets, the so-called "bifolio". A bifolio consists of a double paper sheet. Sometimes, there are multiple bifolios, which document Bruckner's different compositional concepts. The largest part of Bruckner's manuscripts of the final movement can be found in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Other works are located in the Vienna Library, in the library of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, in the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna and in the Jagiellonska Library, Kraków.
Bruckner's estate administrator Theodor Reisch and the testament witnesses, Ferdinand Löwe and Joseph Schalk, according to the minutes of 18 October 1896 divided the estate; Joseph Schalk was commissioned to investigate the connection between the Finale Fragments. After his death, the material in his possession came into the possession of his brother Franz; Ferdinand Löwe received further material. In 1911, Max Auer examined the surviving material of the final movement, which had been in the possession of Bruckner's former student Joseph Schalk. Referring to a sketch sheet, which is no longer available today, Auer states, "The sketches... reveal a main theme, a fugue theme, a chorale and the fifth theme of the Te Deum". In addition, Auer writes: "Once these themes even towered over one another as in the finale of the Eighth." However, it is not possible to clearly identify which passage of the finale is actually meant.
While Bruckner's score designs and sketches can be arranged harmoniously, so that a logical musical sequence results, there are five gaps in this musical composition. For instance, the conclusion of the symphony, the so-called Coda, is missing. The original material was more extensive, but some sheets of music were lost upon Bruckner's death. Bruckner's first biographer and secretary, August Göllerich, who was also the secretary of Franz Liszt, began a comprehensive Bruckner biography, which was completed after his death by the Bruckner researcher Max Auer. In this nine-volume work, it is reported that, "It was an unforgivable mistake that an inventory of the estate was not included and an exact list can not be determined. After Dr. Heller's report the sheet music of the Master were laying around and parts of it were taken by qualified and unbidden people. It was even therefore not possible to find the chorale, which the Master had specially composed for Dr. Heller".
The Australian musicologist John A. Phillips researched the different remaining fragments, compiling a selection of the fragments for the Musikwissenschaftlichen Verlag Wien. In his opinion, the material he obtained is of Bruckner's carefully numbered "autograph score in the making". According to his research, in May 1896, the composition, in the primary stage of the score was written. In his opinion, half of the final bifolios have been lost to the score today. The course of the gaps, however, can be largely restored from little changed earlier versions of individual sheets and extensive Particell sketches. The surviving remains of the score break off shortly before the coda with the 32nd bifolio. According to Phillips, the sketches contain the progress of the coda to the last cadence. The corresponding sketch for the 36th bifolio still contains the first eight bars with a lying tone of D.
A facsimile edition of Bruckner's surviving final material has been published by Musikwissenschaftliche Verlag Wien. The largest part of the fragments can now also be viewed in the works database "Bruckner online".
In 1934, for the first time, Bruckner's passed down drafts and sketches of the Ninth Symphony were sequenced by the Bruckner researcher Alfred Orel. He assumed, however, that there are still different versions.
The movement, as left by Bruckner, features a "jagged" main theme with a double-dotted rhythm:

This insistent double-dotted rhythm pervades the movement. The second theme group begins with a variant of the main theme. The third theme group features a grand chorale, presented by the full brass. This chorale, a "resplendent resurrection" of the "Farewell to Life" of the Adagio, descends in its first half with a similar mood as the Farewell to Life. But in the second half, the chorale ascends triumphantly:
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The opening motif of the Te Deum appears before the development begins, played by the flute. The development that follows is brief, but contains a bizarre passage with minor-ninth trumpet calls:
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A "wild fugue" begins the recapitulation, using a variant of the main theme as a subject:
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After the recapitulation of the chorale, a new "epilogue theme" is introduced. Harnoncourt suggested that it probably would have led to the coda. After this cuts off, the only remaining extant music in Bruckner's hand is the previously mentioned initial crescendo and approach to the final cadence.

Realizations of the finale

Performances and recordings of the manuscripts of the Finale

In 1934, parts of the final composition fragments in the piano version were edited by Else Krüger and performed by her and Kurt Bohnen, in Munich.
In 1940, Fritz Oeser created an orchestral installation for the Finale's exposition. This was performed on 12 October 1940 at the Leipzig Bruckner Festival in a concert of the Great Orchestra of the Reichssenders Leipzig with the conductor Hans Weisbach and transmitted by the radio.
In 1974, Conductor Hans-Hubert Schönzeler played major parts of the Finale for BBC with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra.
In his essay, "Approaching a Torso" in 1976, the composer Peter Ruzicka published his research findings regarding the unfinished final movement of the Ninth Symphony. Previously, he recorded parts of the finale with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Conductor Peter Hirsch has recorded a selection of the fragments with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin on CD.
Nikolaus Harnoncourt performed the final score in a Phillips edition of the Phillips edition with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Vienna and in Salzburg.

The ''Te Deum'' as the finale

Many utterances by Bruckner concerning his Ninth Symphony have only survived indirectly. Bruckner, fearing that he would not be able to complete his composition, was supposed to have envisioned his Te Deum as the possible end of the symphony. When the conductor Hans Richter visited Bruckner, he told him :
Auer continued, about a possible transition to the Te Deum, in the biography :
August Göllerich, Anton Meissner, August Stradal and Theodor Altwirth, persons who knew Bruckner personally and were familiar with him, reported in unison that Bruckner was no longer able to complete an instrumental finale: "Realizing that the completion of a purely instrumental final movement was impossible, he attempted to establish an organic connection to the Te Deum, as proposed to him, to produce an emergency closure of the work, contrary to the tonal misgivings." Bruckner, therefore, certainly had tonal misgivings about ending the D minor symphony in C major. Nevertheless, he conceded to the variant with the Te Deum as a final replacement, at least according to the testimony of various eyewitnesses.
August Göllerich, as his biographer, knew Bruckner personally and collected much information about Bruckner and his environment. The later biographers, who no longer knew Bruckner personally, drew on Göllerich's work. The authentic contemporary statements are therefore sometimes considered more accurate than the explanations and assumptions of later generations. If one wants to believe in contemporary biography, Bruckner had improvised the end of the symphony at the piano, but he was no longer able to fix the coda in definitive form and completely in writing.
We know by Anton Bruckner's physician, Richard Heller, the following words:
In the extended report of the physician, which Max Auer reproduces in his article, "Anton Bruckner's last physician in charge", in 1924, Heller stated, "Since he was quite weak at that time, I often asked him to write the symphony in the main thoughts, but he was not willing to."
Furthermore, Max Auer explains in his book, "It is true that Bruckner led the pen until the last day of his life to finish his Ninth with a finale. The extensive sketches show that the master also wanted to conclude this work, like the Fifth Symphony, with a purely instrumental finale and a powerful fugue. In the middle of his work on the fugue, death snatched the pen from him". Indeed, in the fugue, the last almost completely orchestrated score pages are traceable. The subsequent score pages are only incompletely instrumented, although the strings are written down in detail, but the winds are only incomplete or only hinted at.

Carragan's completion (1983; revised 2003, 2006, 2010 and 2017)

The first attempt of a performing version of the Finale available on disc was the one by William Carragan. His 1983 completion was premiered by Moshe Atzmon, conducting the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in January 1985.
The European premiere by the Utrecht Symfonie Orkest conducted by Hubert Soudant, was the first to be recorded. Shortly afterwards, this version was recorded for CD release by Yoav Talmi and the Oslo Philharmonic.
Talmi's recording also includes the retrieved fragments Bruckner left so that the listener may determine for himself how much of the realization is speculation by the editor.
The revision of 2006 was recorded by :jp:内藤彰|Akira Naito. This recording includes the Trio No. 2 of 1893.
The further revision of 2010, which was premiered by Warren Cohen and the Musica Nova Orchestra in November 2009, has been recorded by Gerd Schaller and the Philharmonie Festiva.
Carragan made some additional adjustments in 2017.
Carragan uses both older and earlier bifolios. He bridges the gaps more freely by using sound formations and harmonic connections that are less typical for Bruckner than for later musical history. He extends the coda by remaining at a constant fortissimo level for long periods and incorporating a variety of themes and allusions, including the chorale theme and the Te Deum.

Samale–Mazzuca completion (1984; revised 1985)

The team of Nicola Samale and Giuseppe Mazzuca put together a new realization from 1983 to 1985, which was recorded in 1986 by Eliahu Inbal and fits in with Inbal's recordings of early versions of Bruckner's symphonies. It was also included by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky in his recording of the different versions of Bruckner's symphonies. The coda of the Samale and Mazzuca realization has more in common with the corresponding passage of the Eighth Symphony than it does with the later Samale, Mazzuca, Phillips and Cohrs realization. The authors, Samale and Mazzuca, do not wish this version to be performed any longer.

Samale–Mazzuca–Phillips–Cohrs completion (1992; revised 1996, 2005, 2008 and 2011)

For this venture Samale and Mazzuca were joined by John A. Phillips and Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs. This completion proposes one way to realize Bruckner's intention to combine themes from all four movements. This completion has been recorded by Kurt Eichhorn, with the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, for the Camerata label. The 1996 revision has been recorded by Johannes Wildner for Naxos.
A new, revised edition of this completion was published in 2005 by Nicola Samale and Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs. Cohrs' latest research also made it possible to recover the musical content of one missing bifolio in the Fugue fully from the particello-sketch. This new edition, 665 bars long, makes use of 569 bars from Bruckner himself. This version has been recorded by Marcus Bosch for the label Coviello Classics.
A revised reprint of this first revision was performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding, Stockholm, in November 2007. This revision was published in 2008 and was then recorded by conductor Friedemann Layer with the Musikalische Akademie des Nationaltheater-Orchesters, Mannheim. Richard Lehnert explains the changes made for this version.
A final revision was made in 2011, in particular including an entirely new conception of the Coda.
The world premiere of this new ending was given by the Dutch Brabants Orkest under the baton of Friedemann Layer in Breda, 15 October 2011. It was performed in Berlin on 9 February 2012 by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic and can be watched on the Internet. This version was released on EMI Classics on 22 May 2012. Rattle conducted the American premiere at Carnegie Hall on 24 February 2012. Simon Rattle conducted this version again with the Berlin Philharmonic on 26 May 2018.
Nicola Samale and Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs compare in their preface to the study score of the completed performance version of Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca the reconstruction of a musical work with methods of reconstruction of plastic surgery, forensic pathology, aetiology and fine art:
For the beginning of the final movement, the SMPC team of authors uses a bifolio in Bruckner's form in a shortened form. To fill in the gaps, the authors rely primarily on later bifolios and sketches of Bruckner, while earlier original material is sometimes disregarded. The authors believe that every gap has a certain number of bars. The gaps are added by the four editors according to the calculations they have made. For the coda, the authors use Bruckner's sequencing sketches, which are also processed by other authors, in a transposed form. The block effect of the final part is achieved mainly by the constant repetition of individual motifs. The authors also include various themes of the finale.
The coda combines the main themes of all four movements simultaneously, in a somewhat similar fashion to the coda of the finale of Symphony No. 8:
\relative c'

Josephson's completion (1992)

In his finale edition, Nors S. Josephson makes various cyclical connections to the first and third movement of the symphony. Above all, he refers to a method that Bruckner uses in his Symphony No. 8. Josephson also uses Bruckner's sketched sequencing, which is believed to be part of the coda. In the coda. He refers to the themes of the exposition and avoids further development of the material. Compared to the Adagio, the final movement gets less weight in his edition. Josephson's completion by John Gibbons with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra has been issued by Danacord: CD DADOCD 754, 2014.
Nors S. Josephson also aims for a reconstruction and states in the preface to his score edition, which is titled as Finale-Reconstruction:

Letocart's completion (2008)

In 2008 the Belgian organist and composer Sébastien Letocart realized a new completion of the Finale in 2007–08. In the Coda he included quotations of themes from the Fifth, Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, the mid-subject of the Trio as a final Halleluja, and at the end the combination of the four main themes from all four movements of the Ninth.
Letocart's completion, together with the first three parts of the symphony, was recorded in 2008 by the French conductor Nicolas Couton with the MAV Symphony Orchestra of Budapest.
Sébastien Letocart states in the booklet text to the CD recording of his final version:

Schaller's completion (2016; revised 2018)

has composed his own completion of the Ninth, closely based on Bruckner's notes. He took into account all available draft materials as far back as the earliest sketches in order to close the remaining gaps in the score as much as possible. He used Bruckner's original manuscript documents, and ran the finale to 736 bars. Additionally, Schaller was able to supplement archival and manuscript material with missing elements in the score by drawing on his experience as a conductor, and applying Bruckner's compositional techniques to the recordings of the complete cycle of all the composer's eleven symphonies. The resulting composition, even the passages without continuous original material, are in a recognizably Brucknerian style.
Schaller also creates the broad, dramatically designed reprise of the main theme from Bruckner's earlier sketches. In the coda he quotes the opening theme of the first movement, thereby bridging the beginning of the symphony, a technique of quoting that Bruckner himself used in his symphonies and originating back to Beethoven. In the final part of the coda, Schaller renounces the quotations from other works by Bruckner in his newly published revised edition of 2018.
Schaller first performed his version of the finale with the Philharmonie Festiva in the abbey church at Ebrach on 24 July 2016, as part of the Ebrach Summer Music Festival.
In March 2018 Schaller's revised version was published by Ries and Erler, Berlin, Score No 51487, ISMN M-013-51487-8. Schaller performed his revised version of the finale in the abbey church at Ebrach on 22 July 2018. This performance is issued on Profil CD PH18030.
Gerd Schaller explains a reconstruction in itself as an impossible undertaking:

Other finale completions

Other completions have been made by Ernst Märzendorfer, Hein 's-Gravesande, Marshall Fine, and Roberto Ferrazza.

Published editions (First three movements)

Unlike most of his symphonies, Bruckner did not produce multiple revisions of his Ninth Symphony. However, there have been multiple editions of what Bruckner did write, as well as several attempts to complete the symphony's fourth movement, which Bruckner left unfinished.

Löwe edition (1903)

This was the first published edition of the Ninth Symphony. It was also the version performed at the work's posthumous premiere, and the only version heard until 1932. Ferdinand Löwe made multiple unauthorized changes to the Symphony amounting to a wholesale re-composition of the work. In addition to second-guessing Bruckner's orchestration, phrasing and dynamics, Löwe also dialed back Bruckner's more adventurous harmonies, such as the complete dominant thirteenth chord in the Adagio.

Orel edition (1934)

This was the first edition to attempt to reproduce what Bruckner had actually written. It was first performed in 1932 by the Munich Philharmonic conducted by Siegmund von Hausegger, in the same program immediately following a performance of Löwe's edition. The edition was published, possibly with adjustments, two years later under the auspices of the Gesamtausgabe.

Nowak edition (1951)

This is a corrected reprint of the Orel edition of 1934. The Nowak edition is the most commonly performed one today.

Cohrs edition (2000)

This new edition of the complete three movements has been recorded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Simon Rattle and Simone Young. It contains only minor differences from the Orel and Nowak editions, but corrects several printing errors and includes extensive comments in the footnotes, explaining some of the editorial problems. The separate Critical Report of Cohrs contains numerous facsimiles from the first three movements. It also contains an edition of the two earlier Trios for concert performance.

Sheet music

Recordings of the completions of the fourth movement are usually coupled with the Nowak or Cohrs edition for the first three movements.
A recording of the Orel or Nowak edition on average lasts about 65 minutes, though a fast conductor like Carl Schuricht can get it down to 56 minutes.
The oldest complete performance preserved on record is by Otto Klemperer with the New York Philharmonic from 1934.
The first commercial recording was made by Siegmund von Hausegger with the Munich Philharmonic in 1938 for HMV. Both recordings used the Orel edition.
The apocryphal Löwe version is available on CD remasterings of LPs by Hans Knappertsbusch and F. Charles Adler. These can be as short as 51 minutes.
The earliest recordings of the Orel edition were Oswald Kabasta's live performance with the Munich Philharmonic in 1943 for the Music and Arts label, and Wilhelm Furtwängler's studio performance with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1944.
After Bruno Walter's studio recording with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in 1959 for Sony/CBS, the Nowak edition was preferred.
The most recent Orel edition recording was Daniel Barenboim's live performance with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1991 for Teldec.
In 2003 Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Wiener Philharmoniker recorded the Ninth as well as the Finale fragment for BMG/RCA, but without the coda sketches.
In the CD "Bruckner unknown" Ricardo Luna recorded the Scherzo, the three versions of the Trio as well as the Finale fragment with the coda sketches.