Audition: Bruckner - Symphony No 9 - Staatskaplle Dresden/Jochum EMI
Preface to the completion of the 2025 Brucknerthon In my musical world there are some pieces of music that I listen to very rarely because the music is too potent. Today I need to finish my Brucknerthon for 2025. This mini marathon is to hear all 9 of Bruckner symphonies in order in performances/recordings that are new to me. The Ninth always looms large - last in the list, it is possibly Bruckner's most unsettling score - an uncomfortable audition. There’s a problem at the end of each Brucknerthon, the piece I’m listening to for this review. Bruckner’s Ninth is fierce, radical, uncompromising and literally without an ending (the finale was planned but never completed. Bruckner couldn’t end it, so it’s without a final movement. But he left us enough to show his direction - a direction picked up by Mahler no less. The EMI set was recording before the days of CDs, so with the original tapes transferred to high resolution SACDs in Japan - the sound is extraordinary. ...
