The completed Bruckner 9 - Simon Rattle

Bruckner's 9th has always eluded me - it is a torso, with undeniably beautiful music, but lacks both a sense of finality, of closing the argument, and a sense that the three completed movements almost certainly would have been significantly altered by Bruckner before coming to a 'definitive' text.  There have been attempts to complete the 9th, since Bruckner had actually composed and orchestrated a significant portion before his death.

But still, problems remain. What Bruckner left did not reach the coda or finale, except in sketches. And just because Bruckner laid out sketches or fragments, means little in terms of how Bruckner would ultimately have finished the 4th movement - sketches are working drafts. Bruckner worked on the finale up until the day of his death - he worked on it, in fact, all morning before dying around 3 in that afternoon.

There have been previous attempts at the 4th movement, most notably Carrigan's, which has taken those orchestrated, completed sections and fairly liberally completed and added to the fragments and sketches. This latest version can be more considered an 'arrangement' of those fragments and sketches based on analysis of the through orchestrated sections, out of the finale's 653 bars, 440 are pure Bruckner, 117 have been extrapolated from Bruckner sketches and fragments, and a further 96 are new material filling gaps to complete the work. Where controversy will inevitably enter the discussion is that last 96 - Carrigan put in significantly more material, and his vision of the sketches differs significantly.

Perhaps the only way to look at this is whether it actually forms a cohesive movement and represents what ultimately would have been Bruckner's final musical thoughts on this planet.

First out, Rattle and the BPO are given a truly fine live recording, slightly congested in the bottom end and on climaxes due to Philharmonie acoustics,  and are entirely convincing in the familiar 3 movement torso. Not as fast as Schuricht, but just as dramatic, somewhat dark and stormy vision entirely convincing as a representation of the turbulence of Bruckner's last days, as he reached out beyond to a God and afterlife he deeply believed in.

But I expect most will look to this recording for the 4th movement. Listened to on its own, it is highly musically appropriate - thoroughly Brucknerian, thoroughly idiomatic, as it should be - it's pretty much all Bruckner. Controversy compared to the Carrigan version will come from the build up to the coda primarily - but we have to look at how the movement works as a whole, and here it does, resolving to a grand climax as the heavens open up.

I don't care to be a musicologist in there matters - only in what I have to hear in front of me. Rattle is not a natural in the Germanic repertoire, but does a great service here that exceeds my expectations in the traditional torso and blazes ahead with a convincing finale. Very worthwhile, and highly recommended.