STEPHEN HOUGH PERFORMS MENDELSSOHN
of the Eighth by his revered friend , the conductor Hermann Levi , instigated a terrible creative crisis in this most sensitive and insecure of composers . For the next four years , Bruckner laid the Ninth aside and — goaded by his well-intentioned but musically inept disciples — feverishly overhauled the scores of not only the Eighth , but his first four symphonies as well . Precious time was lost that might have brought the Ninth to completion .
To understand Bruckner ’ s unique mystical world , we need to know something about the man himself . Born in rural Upper Austria to a family of sturdy peasant origins , he was the latest bloomer of all the major composers . His early life was devoted to teaching and service as organist in local churches . With great reluctance , he left his provincial sanctuary for Vienna in 1868 at the age of 44 . There , he wrote his last eight symphonies while building a reputation at the Vienna Conservatory as a beloved and eccentric teacher of composition . Naive and socially insecure , Bruckner never lost his rural Upper Austrian accent and was ill-equipped to deal with the sophisticated machinations of Viennese musical politics . Devoted to and somewhat influenced by Wagner ’ s music , he bore the brunt of the anti-Wagnerian attacks by the pro-Brahms clique , led by the Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick . Throughout all his trials , Bruckner was sustained by his profound Catholic faith .
Thus all Bruckner ’ s symphonies can be understood as spiritual quests expressed in musical terms . The Ninth , written by a man who knew he was close to death , is the most urgent of these quests : a battle between the composer ’ s faith and fears . Despite his religious faith , Bruckner suffered bouts of paralyzing depression throughout his life , and in the Ninth ’ s music , we experience this literally life-anddeath struggle with his demons and his failing body .
Listening to the Ninth To enter fully into the world of a Bruckner symphony , listeners must turn off their cell phones and readjust their 21 st -century internal clocks . Inspired by Wagner ’ s music dramas and Beethoven ’ s Ninth Symphony ,
Bruckner conceived his symphonic movements on a very grand scale . His themes are extremely long : really families of themes built cumulatively from many elements . He also had a habit , heard often in the Ninth , of pausing before launching a new phase of his structure (“ But look , if I have something important to say I must first take a deep breath !” he once explained ), and these pauses can be helpful guideposts .
First movement : As is customary in Bruckner ’ s symphonies , the music stirs from a primeval void of soft tremolo strings . From the mists , the eight horns — they are the Ninth ’ s signature instruments — gradually gather the elements of the first theme family . In a long crescendo , this finally culminates with the horns shouting out the terrifying last phrase in a triple-forte “ Bruckner unison .” This music is rooted in D minor , the key Bruckner called his favorite ; it is also the key of Beethoven ’ s Ninth . Now Bruckner pauses for breath before launching the second theme family : beautiful music for strings in A major that aspires to happiness but is tonally unstable . This is crushed by the third theme family : a rocking dirge in strings over weeping woodwinds , back in D minor . This too reaches an immense climax , which closes the first statement of the movement ’ s themes .
Rather than thinking in terms of traditional symphonic sonata form , Bruckner scholar Robert Simpson suggests we listen to this movement as statement , expanded counterstatement ( a combination of development and recapitulation ) and large closing coda . In the counterstatement , the feeling of crisis and anxiety is greatly intensified in the now stretched-out themes . When the coda finally arrives over a muffled drum roll , it reinforces this sense of searing tragedy as a brass chorale swells from gentleness to a violent close , shattered by dissonant trumpets .
Second movement : Bruckner was famous for his Austrian peasant-dance scherzos , but the Scherzo , also in D minor , is altogether different in its unprecedented brutality — a vision of
Hell perhaps ? Little demons scamper in pizzicato strings before Mephistopheles himself appears in a hammering brassdominated theme that , once heard , can never be forgotten . An insouciant oboe tries vainly to laugh off this vision . A Bruckner pause precedes the Trio section in a faster tempo : delicately scored music for strings and woodwinds that remains nervous and unsettled . And with good reason : for the savage Scherzo soon repeats itself .
Third movement : The Adagio third movement contains Bruckner ’ s most beautiful music contending with what Simpson calls his most “ tortuous ” passages . The violins ’ opening theme , leaping up a painful minor-ninth interval , evokes both yearning and suffering . This begins the first theme family , which includes rising scales recalling the “ Holy Grail ” motive in Wagner ’ s Parsifal and loud , threatening brass fanfares . The horns — four of them now playing the dusky-toned Wagner tubas — follow the fanfares with noble descending chords , which Bruckner called his “ Farewell to Life .” A more lyrical second-theme family opens with a poignant violin melody . This is all music in search of a key — E major — which it will not find until this melody returns near the end of the movement .
As in the first movement , a long counterstatement develops and expands all this material . It ultimately reaches a terrible climax of volume and dissonance that Simpson calls “ the tearing of the veil — in Bruckner ’ s mind , perhaps , the opening of the gates of death .” Bruckner pauses — and then timorously steps across . A glorious vista of heavenly peace in serene E major awaits him after all the struggles he has endured . To the noble strains of horns and Wagner tubas , he has attained his goal , leaving us with a true sense of artistic completion and fulfillment .
Instrumentation : Three flutes , three oboes , three clarinets , three bassoons , eight horns including four Wagner tubas , three trumpets , three trombones , tuba , timpani and strings .
Notes by Janet E . Bedell , © 2018
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