DDD BRUCKNER. Symphony No. 9. (with reconstructed Finale) New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia Johannes Wildner

Transcription

1 BRUCKNER Symphony No. 9 (with reconstructed Finale) New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia Johannes Wildner DDD

2 Anton Bruckner ( ) Symphony No. 9 (With Finale reconstructed by Samale - Phillips - Cohrs - Mazzucca) To this day, Anton Bruckner s Ninth Symphony languishes in a purgatory of misunderstanding, false the first editions. In 1929 the Bruckner Complete Edition was begun for just this reason, in 1934 interpretation, appropriation, even barbaric publishing the original score of the Ninth, edited by mishandling, having long fallen prey to taste (Adorno). Bruckner had scarcely taken his last breath when souvenir hunters swooped down on the manuscripts lying around the room where he died, which was only secured some time later. The executors of his estate entrusted Bruckner s pupil Joseph Schalk to inquire into the correlation of the remaining 75 score Alfred Orel, together with a study volume which, for the first time, contained transcriptions of many of the Finale manuscripts. But Orel omitted several sources, scattered as they were to the four winds; his presentation was unclear and full of mistakes. Apart from that, his edition of the score, like Nowak s 1951 reprint of it, comprised only the first three movements. bifolios for the Finale of the Ninth. Joseph died on The Te Deum was first published separately in the 7th November 1900 without having undertaken the task. His brother Franz quietly took the manuscripts into his keeping, manuscripts which, according to Bruckner s Testament, should have belonged to the Court Library (today the Austrian National Library). Complete Edition in 1961 without any reference as to its intended function with regard to the Ninth, although Universal Edition had published a study score of the Ninth together with the Te Deum sometime prior to 1920, and thus to some extent realised Bruckner s During rehearsals for the first performance on intentions. 11 February 1903 in Vienna, the conductor Ferdinand Löwe baulked at the Ninth s radical nature, completely re-orchestrating the first three movements; still unresearched, the material for the Finale was dismissed. Löwe, out of piety for the Master s wishes, as he claimed, included in this performance the Te Deum, but he had not considered the stylistic discrepancy between his altered arrangement and the Te Deum, which was left in its original form. The Te Deum was excluded from his first edition, although Bruckner probably intended it to be published with the symphony. Löwe even published his own arrangement without comment as Bruckner s authentic score. The editor s conviction, cited in his Foreword, that the three completed movements constituted in themselves a performable, closed unit, ultimately became dogma, for the distorted first editions maintained their validity on the concert podium for decades; in the process such opinions hardened into concrete. It slowly became common knowledge among Bruckner scholars that something wasn t right about Proper critical discussion of Orel s edition never came about. Nonetheless, attempts to complete the Finale were repeatedly based on this defective source. Some were never published or later withdrawn; other scores were occasionally performed or even published, but have not established themselves, and justifiably so: none of their authors ever published a detailed account of their activities, an absolute necessity in a critical case such as this. Apart from that, all these scores reveal egregious errors in their methodologies and astonishing carelessness in their handling of Bruckner s manuscript texts. On the one hand the arrangers dispensed with significant original passages; on the other, a high proportion of free Brucknerian writing can always be found. One arranger, for example, filled a demonstrably 16-measure-long gap in the score with no less than 100 measures of his own composition! New steps in the resolution of this problem were first undertaken in 1985, as Nicola Samale and Giuseppe Mazzuca published their Ricostruzione, the first soundly based and properly documented 2

3 performing version of the Finale. This pioneering achievement provided impetus for long overdue research on all the manuscript sources for the Ninth, which the director of the Bruckner Complete Edition, Leopold Nowak, was no longer able to undertake. Shortly before his death in 1991, he entrusted the task to the Australian musicologist and composer John A. its completion. The composition, in all considerably longer than six hundred measures, originally extended significantly further than what survives today, and was apparently largely complete by the summer of Although some of the later, definitive bifolios have been lost, the continuity of approximately 560 measures, up to the end of the recapitulation of the Phillips. This extensive project on the Ninth comprises chorale, can readily be demonstrated. The ten volumes. Phillips painstakingly ordered and systematised the scattered manuscripts. His detailed investigations of paper and handwriting resolved many details of the Finale s genesis. Moreover Phillips was thoroughly acquainted with the theoretical systems on which Bruckner founded his compositional technique. The definitive performing version of the Finale, published in 1991 by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca owes its validity primarily to his insights. The composition of the Finale was not significantly different from that of Bruckner s earlier works. Bruckner had his music paper prepared for him by his secretary Anton Meissner, who wrote the names of the instruments, the clefs and key signatures, and ruled the barlines. Most of the bifolios of the Finale score therefore have four measures per page, a fact which becomes significant for the reconstruction. Bruckner initially formulated his musical material in sketches and particello drafts, then notated the strings and main wind entries in score using the prepared bifolios which he numbered and laid one after another, rather than interleaving them. He carefully regulated the period structure of the music as he went along by placing his so-called metrical numbers beneath each measure. The woodwind and brass parts were then systematically scored out. Bruckner thus refined his conception of the music during its orchestration, at times discarding bifolios and replacing them with new ones. In a final work phase, he would have gone through the composition again and added all the necessary instrumentation of the c. 220-measure exposition was probably complete; many bifolios carry Bruckner s remark finished. In the second half, the lost bifolios 15, 20, 25, 28 and 31 constitute gaps in the score, the contents of which can largely be reconstructed from the foregoing sketches. Furthermore, sketches have been found to the coda, long believed lost - a crescendo passage of c. 24 measures based on the opening motive and a brief ascending chorale phrase, as well as, most significantly, the movement s concluding 24-measure cadence. Finally, we know from the memoirs of Bruckner s last doctor, Richard Heller, that the symphony was intended to conclude with a song of praise in D major, which Bruckner even played to him on the piano. In other words, although the final double barline cannot be found in the material which survives today, we still have a clear impression of the Finale as a whole. For only very few measures has no music whatsoever of Bruckner s survived. The complex methods used in the reconstruction can hardly be adequately outlined here, but have been publicised elsewhere in appropriate scholarly fashion. Clues to the contents of the gaps are supplied by an analysis of the surrounding measures as well as by a knowledge of Bruckner s rigorous compositional methodology, full understanding of which has to this day been overlooked by most musicologists. Precisely this approach makes possible what would probably be a futile undertaking in the case of any other composer, performance directives (phrasing, articulation, namely, a comprehensive representation of the Finale dynamics etc.). as a completed whole, although necessarily speculative The Finale is hence no collection of disjointed sketches, as uninformed authors continue to claim, but the remains of a score left in the second-to-last phase of in regard to certain details. The minor gaps in this web could be filled from the surviving sketches and preliminary materials with astonishingly few question 3

4 marks, the missing material synthesized from known which, as in the Finale of the Eighth, would have material through the use of Bruckner s own completed the circle. compositional techniques. It is thus unjustified to speak Following the crescendo passage sketched by of any kind of free, imitatory composition having been Bruckner at the outset of the coda, the arrangers realised undertaken. an overlay of the principal themes of each of the four Bruckner achieved a form in the Finale which took movements as the first climax of the coda, which certain sonata structure as a starting-point, but which, in its early Bruckner scholars claim to have seen in a sketch great daring and originality, brings the motivic since lost; here it constitutes a logical point of arrival. developments of the first three movements to a This is succeeded by the chorale theme in eight conclusion; the movement is thus indispensable to an measures - derived from Bruckner s harmonisation of understanding of the whole symphony. The principal the chorale by the strings during the recapitulation of theme, with its powerful strides, defies all possibility of the second group - and an eight-measure realisation of development by virtue of its repetitive structure. At the Bruckner s ascending chorale passage. The realisation same time it encompasses the entire spectrum of the of the sketch for the cadence corresponds with the chromatic scale and so claims for itself an all-embracing climax of the Adagio and the coda of the first status. The second theme, invariably called the song movement. This is followed immediately by Bruckner s period by Bruckner, is derived directly from the concluding pedal-point. Above this the arrangers principal theme, a feature unique to this movement. The realised a song of praise, a concluding crescendo usually lush cantabile quality of the second subject was passage of 37 measures, corresponding precisely to the here renounced by Bruckner in favour of an length of the final structural units of each of the first intentionally barren negative image of the principal three movements and drawing on various clues from the theme. All the more unforgettable is the impact of the Te Deum as well as from the symphonic chorus third theme, a resplendent resurrection of the choral Helgoland (1893). theme of the Adagio, referred to by Bruckner as his That Bruckner s own vision of this final glory died farewell to life, accompanied by the flames of its with him is undeniable. Every performing version by violin figuration. But for now this vision dies away; the foreign hands is and remains provisional, a work in movement is not yet over. The well-known opening progress, and it is by no means impossible that figure from the Te Deum appears hesitantly in the flute. previously lost material for the Finale may come to Considerable stretches of the development section use light. But such a contingency solution as this, carefully this motive - a formal indication that it was probably and lovingly crafted, can still be regarded as preferable intended to play a central role in the coda as well. Then, to giving up this daring final movement as entirely lost. in place of a true recapitulation, a daring fugue ensues That so much of it has survived, given the transmission based on elements of the principal theme. A further of the sources, is a minor miracle in itself. innovation is the emergence of an epilogue theme, The Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca score was which is derived from the triplets of the principal theme first performed on 3rd December 1991 in Linz, Austria, of the whole symphony. The second group is richer in and published in the same year. The sources for the the recapitulation, towards the end introducing an entire Ninth have been appearing successively in new allusion to the Easter hymn Christ ist erstanden. publications in the Bruckner Complete Edition since Following the recapitulation of the chorale, now Since then, interest in this score has steadily combined in powerful symbolism with the string increased. On the other hand, the music world, invoking figuration of the Te Deum, Bruckner returns to his a misunderstood notion of Werktreue, or fidelity to epilogue theme. It would probably have led into a the printed page, often refuses to acknowledge the restatement of the principal theme of the first movement wishes of a composer, not to speak of the recent 4

5 findings of serious source scholarship. This by no means applies only to Bruckner: in general, dogmatic and at the same time uninformed adherents of the dubious notion that only a composer s final score has any validity enjoy rejecting completions of fragmentary works. Here, as the conductor and musicologist Peter Gülke once fittingly put it, intellectual sloth compromises itself with the trappings of humility. Bruckner himself expressly wished the Ninth to conclude with the Te Deum as the best substitute should he not complete the instrumental final movement; a pronouncement for which we should actually be grateful, for what composer near death thinks to take such precautionary measures? For this reason alone there should be no question that a threemovement performance of the Ninth in no way corresponds to Bruckner s conception. To act retrospectively as if Bruckner needed to be spoken for, or to overrule his wishes, is not only to adopt a superior attitude, but is moreover an act of profound disrespect toward the composer and his musical legacy. Even in its surviving fragmentary state the Finale is first and foremost Bruckner s own music - whether one welcomes or regrets the radicalism of its form and content - and represented for him an indispensable component of his last, four-movement symphony. Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs Translation: John A. Phillips 5

6 New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia The New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia was formed in 1996 from two orchestras from the northern Ruhr district, the Westphalian Symphony Orchestra Recklinghausen and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of Gelsenkirchen. Since 1997, the orchestra has worked under the guidance of their Music Director Johannes Wildner, who has developed a far-reaching concept for the artistic and organisational merger of the two existing orchestras, and a strong position in the region. The tasks of the orchestra are very broadly spread. It serves as the major full symphony orchestra of the region, with a series of nine symphony concerts and several special concerts annually. Gelsenkirchen, Recklinghausen and Kamen serve as permanent concert venues, as well as the whole northern Ruhr area. At the same time, the New Philharmonic Orchestra is also the opera orchestra of the Opera House in Gelsenkirchen. Considerable importance is given to activities for children and young people, and thanks to private sponsors and enormously active teachers and parents it has been possible to reach a great number of children and young people in schools and thereby to win new audiences. Another important element is found in collaboration with choirs from the region for performances of large-scale oratorios and other major choral works. The orchestra has appeared with a number of distinguished conductors and soloists, has embarked on a demanding series of recordings and undertaken tours abroad, notably, in 2000, to Beijing. Johannes Wildner Born in Austria, Johannes Wildner studied conducting, violin and musicology, and was a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. After positions as chief conductor of the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Ko ice in Slovakia from 1990 to 1993, of the Prague State Opera from 1994 to 1995), and as First Permanent Conductor of the Leipzig Opera from 1996 to 1998, he has since 1997 been Generalmusikdirektor of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia, an orchestra based in Recklinghausen which is also the opera orchestra of the opera house in Gelsenkirchen. In addition to his position in Germany, Johannes Wildner has also been supporting the restructuring process of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, as their Music Director since He has appeared as a guest conductor of major opera houses, festivals and orchestras, including the opera houses of Graz and Leipzig, the opera festival Mozart in Schönbrunn in Vienna, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the MDR-Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the Vienna Radio Symphony, the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the New Zealand Symphony, the Taipei National Symphony and the China Philharmonic Orchestra. Johannes Wildner has recorded more than forty CDs and videos, including complete versions of Die Fledermaus and Così fan tutte, as well as Bruckner s Third and Ninth Symphonies with the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia for Naxos. 6

7 BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 (Complete) NAXOS The last nine years of Bruckner s life were entirely consumed with the creation of his transcendent Ninth Symphony but, at his death, the Finale of this last great work remained unfinished. The autograph score, extant sketches and drafts survived only partially. The emerging score was painstakingly ordered and reconstructed by the Australian musicologist John A. Phillips and published in the Bruckner Complete Edition, in all circa 578 measures of music, including sketches for the coda hitherto believed lost. In this recording, Bruckner s final symphony is presented complete in four movements corresponding to Bruckner s original conception of the work. The performing version presented here is based on the systematic research of the scattered manuscripts by the conductors, composers and musicologists Nicola Samale, John A. Phillips, Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs and Giuseppe Mazzuca ( ). It was first performed in 1991 in Linz. Anton BRUCKNER ( ) CD 1 Symphony No. 9 in D minor (1st-3rd movements), WAB 109 (Dedicated To the Dear Lord) Edited by Leopold Nowak 1 Feierlich; misterioso 23:12 2 Scherzo: Bewegt; lebhaft 10:58 Trio: Schnell. Scherzo da capo 3 Adagio: Langsam; feierlich 25:06 CD 2 Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Finale (unfinished) (Performing version by Samale - Phillips - Cohrs - Mazzuca, 1991/rev. 1996) 1 Finale (Misterioso; nicht schnell) 23:28 New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia Johannes Wildner Recorded at the Schillertheater Gelsenkirchen, Germany, from the 20th - 21st April and on 12th May, Producer: SonArte Musikproduktion Engineer: Christian Schmitt Booklet Notes: Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs Editions: Tracks 1-3, Alkor Edition Kassel; Track 4, Samale - Phillips - Cohrs - Mazzuca ( , rev. 1996) Cover Picture: Mountain landscape by Caspar David Friedrich ( ) (The Art Archive / Gemaldegalerie Dresden / The Art Archive) DDD Playing Time 82:43 h & g 2003 HNH International Ltd. Booklet notes in English Kommentar auf Deutsch Made in Canada NAXOS BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 (Complete)