# Bruckner finale



## Rach d minor (Apr 21, 2014)

I just listened to a recording of the completed movements of Bruckner's ninth symphony which finale should I listen to? I want the most complex and the closest to Bruckner's intentions.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I prefer none. Just let it end with the slow movement.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Rach d minor said:


> I just listened to a recording of the completed movements of Bruckner's ninth symphony which finale should I listen to? I want the most complex and the closest to Bruckner's intentions.


Aye! There's the rub! Who knows? Be glad you have those three movements. Anything else is hodgepodge.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Personally, I prefer the Samale-Phillips-Cohrs version, the one recorded on Naxos, over the Carragan version. I understand another version has appeared, but I haven't heard it.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Bruckner once intimated that his Te Deum would be a fitting conclusion. Personally, I just listen to the symphony on its own w/o any of the reconstructions or synthesized last movements.


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

I'm sure people said this about Mahler 10 way back when (that the Adagio should only be heard), but the Cooke version has gained a foothold in the repertoire, so never say never with Bruckner 9 and its finale.


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## Radames (Feb 27, 2013)

I really like ending it on that beautiful adagio. I heard the Boston Symphony play it in January and a few people walked out after the scherzo.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I've read about Bruckner considering the Te Deum as the final movement but haven't some musicologists said that the key it's in renders it unsuitable? I've got the Wildner recording on Naxos and I can take or leave the final movement - perhaps the three-movement work is just too well-respected to make any finale becoming a fixture.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

maestro267 said:


> I'm sure people said this about Mahler 10 way back when (that the Adagio should only be heard), but the Cooke version has gained a foothold in the repertoire, so never say never with Bruckner 9 and its finale.


Yeah, but Mahler's Symphony is actually finished, minus some details, whereas Bruckner's has to have parts composed by editors to fill in presumed gaps, and they have to make a conjecture about what the structure would have been.


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## cyberstudio (Mar 31, 2019)

I'd highly recommend Nikolaus Harnoncourt/Wiener Philharmoniker's recording of the Ninth on 2 CD's, because they played only what Bruckner wrote, and thereby ends once and for all the whole debate. There was no coda, obviously, but most of the finale is pretty complete and you are missing out a lot if you have never heard it. It is not just 'closest' to Bruckner's intention. It is Bruckner, period. And the first 3 movements are a great performance in its own right.


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