Bruckner Symphonies Nos. 1–9

The year 2024 marks the bicentennial of Anton Bruckner’s birth and the culmination of the China NCPA Orchestra’s project to record the Austrian composer’s symphonic cycle. Bruckner’s nine symphonies are often compared to “cathedrals of sound” for both their monumental architecture and their pervasive sense of mystery and spirituality. “His music embodies humanity’s insignificance in the world and a great awe for nature,” conductor LÜ Jia tells Apple Music. “Similar to but distinct from Gustav Mahler, more than just achieving individual emotional catharsis, Bruckner’s work integrates emotions into philosophical realisations, enabling the listener to come away enlightened.” Despite having tackled all of Bruckner’s symphonies on three previous occasions, Lü is passionate about revisiting them with the China NCPA Orchestra—the first complete cycle of Bruckner symphonies by a Chinese ensemble under the baton of a single Chinese conductor. “Age, environmental changes and different orchestras generate new and unique experiences every time,” he says. “Art is not a story in and of itself, but is the gradual accumulation of our experiences through which the work ultimately takes shape.” Apart from the First Symphony, an early work, and the Ninth, unfinished at the composer’s death in 1896 at the age of 72, the cycle falls into two main creative periods: 1872 to 1876 for the Second through Fifth symphonies, and the late 1870s to the late 1880s for the Sixth through Eighth symphonies. The China NCPA Orchestra’s recordings of the First and Second symphonies are of live performances; the remainder were recorded at the National Centre for the Performing Arts with no audience present. Written from 1865 to 1866, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, WAB 101 is the first of the composer’s symphonies to which he applied a number and represents the starting point for his signature symphonic style. He composed it at the age of 42, and it’s a young-feeling work (“The saucy maid”, as Bruckner jokingly referred to it) overflowing with lively energy—the dynamic fourth movement is the sole Finale in his entire symphonic cycle that opens with allegro fff tempo and dynamic markings. This recording is of a live performance in 2023 of the 1891 “Vienna version”, in which Bruckner thoroughly revised the score using the benefit of two decades of additional symphonic experience. Following a first attempt at a second symphony—a D minor work completed in 1869 that the composer later repudiated—Symphony No. 2 in C Minor, WAB 102 took shape between 1871 and 1872. Bruckner himself conducted the premiere in Vienna in 1873. It is here that the template of his later symphonies took shape: their monumental scale, their formal symmetry and their handling of quotations. The Second has the nickname “Symphony of Pauses” due to the abundance of rest measures used for dramatic effect or to demarcate thematic sections. Bruckner’s silences, which turn up throughout his symphonies but are particularly prominent here, may be inspired by his background as an organist, where pauses are inserted to allow time for the pipes to stop resonating. This rendition is a live recording of a 2016 performance that was released on the newly established NCPA Classics label. Written in 1873 and revised repeatedly by the composer, Symphony No. 3 in D Minor, WAB 103 appears here in its 1889 revision. In any version, the Third has a reputation for difficulty, partly due to a disastrous reception at its Viennese premiere in 1877. It’s a majestic work in which Bruckner charges boldly forward from the ground established by the Second. For the first time, we hear several Bruckner hallmarks—full cyclical structure in particular. The first movement opens with a main theme on a solo trumpet emerging from tremolo strings. The Adagio contains a quote from Die Walküre, befitting a symphony dedicated to Richard Wagner. And the whole work wraps up on a note of triumphant optimism, with a Finale that pairs a chorale with a polka before reaching a major key conclusion. Symphony No. 4 in E-flat Major, WAB 104, which Bruckner himself called his “Romantic” symphony, was written in 1874 and premiered in 1881. Melodies inspired by birdsong, dark harmonies, thundering crescendos and clarion horn calls evoke the dramatic scenes hinted at by the composer in programme notes alluding to medieval hunting parties. Thrilling and accessible, the symphony was popular with audiences and marks the flowering of the composer’s mature period. Following the accessible Fourth, Bruckner’s next symphony, written in 1875 and 1876, is an enigmatic, intricate work that marks the height of the composer’s contrapuntal skills. Fugal techniques are present in the first movement, where the main theme is combined with itself in the development section, and more significantly in the three fugues present in the Finale. Nicknamed the “Pizzicato” symphony after the pizzicato strings that open three of four movements, the Fifth Symphony is the culmination of Bruckner’s first extended phase of symphonic experimentation, after which he took a temporary break to work on revision and other material. Written between 1879 and 1881, the Sixth is one of Bruckner’s shortest symphonies—a chapel of sound rather than the cathedrals his more monumental work evokes. Only the middle movements were performed during the composer’s lifetime, with the original score not performed in full until 1901. And while the Sixth shares the same general traits as his other symphonies—a four-movement structure and thematic treatments reminiscent of Ludwig van Beethoven, with extensive layering in the orchestration—its reputation rests on its divergences. Rather than opening with a theme emerging from the mist of a string tremolo, the strings pulse with a regular “Bruckner rhythm” (a 3-2 or 2-3 pattern). And the third movement is slower than a typical Bruckner scherzo, propelled forward by unsettling harmonic instability. The composer himself once quipped, “Die Sechste ist die keckste” (“The Sixth is the sauciest”). Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony was written between 1881 and 1883 and was revised just once, in 1885, demonstrating the confidence of the often revision-happy composer. Its 1884 premiere was the greatest popular success he enjoyed in his lifetime. The Adagio’s use of Wagner tubas, their first use in a symphony, is often seen as a tribute to Wagner, who was on the verge of death as that movement was being written. Premiering in 1892 as the composer’s last completed symphony, Symphony No. 8 in C minor, WAB 108 is a grandly spiritual work expressing the composer’s awe and trepidation towards fate. “We focused on specific methods of embodying the music’s emotions—for instance, adjusting the timbre to accurately capture its melancholic mood,” Lü says. “Bruckner’s use of a harp in the Adagio expresses melancholy and confusion in the face of a changing world. And the dialogue between horns and strings that concludes the movement explores the most profound questions of art and human nature in music that sounds exceedingly simple.” Those horns are particularly resonant here due to doubling on many parts that expands the already prodigious brass section to 21 musicians. Unfinished in the composer’s lifetime, Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony was begun in 1887 but interrupted by revisions to earlier works, including the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth symphonies, as well health issues. Knowing it would be his final symphony, the composer added the dedication “dem lieben Gott” (“to the beloved God”). The first movement wasn’t completed until 1893, the second in early 1894 and the third later that year. At his death in 1896, he left copious fragments of the Finale, but the three finished movements—two slow movements bookending a tense Scherzo—can be enjoyed as a complete whole. The concluding Adagio, which Bruckner called a “farewell to life”, ends with a serene coda that puts a satisfying cap on the composer’s symphonic cycle.