Symphony No. 9 in D Minor

Bruckner meant his Ninth Symphony to be the summing up of his life’s achievement, dedicated to his "dear God" and culminating in a grand hymn of praise. But worsening health, complicated by an alarming ability to throw distractions in his own path, meant that at his death in 1896 the symphony was tantalisingly incomplete, with no substantial indication as to that all-important ending. Yet, almost miraculously, the three completed movements he did leave make a wonderful musical epitaph in their own right. The musical landscape is even darker and more haunted than in the Eighth, and in some of its harmonies and orchestral textures the Ninth Symphony seems to peer nervously into the 20th century and into the nightmare world of Expressionism. Bruckner’s symphonies have been compared to “cathedrals in sound", but at times the first movement’s architecture feels weirdly fractured. After this comes a truly demonic "Scherzo" with, at its heart, an almost hallucinatory "Trio" section. The "Adagio" that follows anticipates Mahler in its desperate, often thwarted aspiration, and the climax culminates, not in a vision of heavenly light, but in a revelation of pure terror. Somehow, however, the coda finds its way to a haven of peace, as Bruckner looks back fondly on some of his most successful works. This may not be the farewell Bruckner intended, but it is deeply moving.