Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9
In the Bruckner Cycle, Manfred Honeck conducts the Ninth Symphony
The Concertgebouw Orchestra performs Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of Manfred Honeck. Including the Finale in its most recent reconstruction.
‘It has to be the most beautiful thing I have ever written,’ said Bruckner of this moving Adagio.
Concert programme
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Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 9
Performers
About this concert
Riccardo Chailly, conductor emeritus and former chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, rounds off the symphonic cycle marking Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with his enigmatic swansong, the Symphony No. 9 – including the finale, which the latest scholarship has deemed complete.
Anton Bruckner’s symphonies are a pillar of the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s core repertoire. In the Ninth, darkness wins: Bruckner died before completing the work. The slow third movement is a dignified ‘farewell to life’, as Bruckner himself noted in the score. ‘It has to be the most beautiful thing I have ever written,’ he said of this moving Adagio. ‘It always grips me when I play it.’
Many fragments of the missing finale were found among Bruckner’s personal effects. And for more than a century, these made up a fascinating puzzle, yet no one could piece them together to form a convincing whole. But a team of musicologists changed all that in 2012. The performance version by Samale, Phillips, Cohrs and Mazzuca is astounding, and changes the symphony’s tragic character: after three dark movements, the last brings redemption. Performed here is the ‘SPCM’ version heard in J.A. Phillips’s most recent revision dating from 2021–22.
Riccardo Chailly has unfortunately had to cancel his performances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra due to illness. We are very grateful to Manfred Honeck for agreeing to step in at short notice. Ticket holders will also be informed by email about this programme change.
Dates and tickets
About this concert
Riccardo Chailly, conductor emeritus and former chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, rounds off the symphonic cycle marking Anton Bruckner’s 200th birthday with his enigmatic swansong, the Symphony No. 9 – including the finale, which the latest scholarship has deemed complete.
Anton Bruckner’s symphonies are a pillar of the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s core repertoire. In the Ninth, darkness wins: Bruckner died before completing the work. The slow third movement is a dignified ‘farewell to life’, as Bruckner himself noted in the score. ‘It has to be the most beautiful thing I have ever written,’ he said of this moving Adagio. ‘It always grips me when I play it.’
Many fragments of the missing finale were found among Bruckner’s personal effects. And for more than a century, these made up a fascinating puzzle, yet no one could piece them together to form a convincing whole. But a team of musicologists changed all that in 2012. The performance version by Samale, Phillips, Cohrs and Mazzuca is astounding, and changes the symphony’s tragic character: after three dark movements, the last brings redemption. Performed here is the ‘SPCM’ version heard in J.A. Phillips’s most recent revision dating from 2021–22.
Riccardo Chailly has unfortunately had to cancel his performances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra due to illness. We are very grateful to Manfred Honeck for agreeing to step in at short notice. Ticket holders will also be informed by email about this programme change.