In Reply to: Alex Ross on Bruckner 9 4th movement posted by Thornhill on March 22, 2012 at 11:40:56:
OTOH, I remember reading in one of the older Bruckner biographies (I forget which one) that, despite the fully finished nature of so much of the fourth movement, one would have to be very presumptuous to finish Bruckner's greatest finale for him!
Nevertheless, I agree with you and Alex: once you've heard any of the Ninth Symphony fourth movement completions (imperfect as they may be!), the work no longer sounds right as performed with only the three completed movements. Heck, I love Elgar's "Third Symphony", which (as with the point you make about Süssmayer's version of the Mozart Requiem) is FAR more speculative than any completion of Bruckner's Ninth out there right now!
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Follow Ups
- Yes - I think we're starting to see a groundswell of suppoort for the 4-movement version of the work - Chris from Lafayette 14:13:33 03/22/12 (5)
- Totally agree - TGR 14:49:09 03/22/12 (4)
- +2 - rbolaw 08:48:34 03/23/12 (3)
- RE: +2 - Thornhill 12:09:50 03/24/12 (2)
- RE: +2 - rbolaw 11:33:45 03/25/12 (1)
- Great points - TGR 17:29:05 03/25/12 (0)