Credits:

Abe / Higdon

Description:

Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 Live 2014 with Jansons & Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra! Bruckner's last work, Symphony No. 9, was written in 1887, just after the completion of Symphony No. 8, but he devoted himself to revising another work and did not return to it until 1891. Three years had already passed. As his illness worsened, his compositions stagnated, and he was only able to finish the third movement in the five years before his death. Bruckner once proposed the alternative of putting the "Te Deum" in the fourth movement, but he did not give up on the completion of the work until just before he breathed his last. Because of these circumstances, the performance of this piece has been performed in a variety of ways. Some conductors have attempted to perform the piece in its "complete four-movement form," such as using a scholarly edition or playing the "Te Deum" in the last movement, but Jansons performed only the "completed three movements. By closing the piece with the Adagio in the third movement, the listener is left with a rich sound that evokes a sense of prayer and longing for God.(The concert was titled "The Last Works," and the program was Berg's Violin Concerto and Bruckner's Symphony No. 9.) As Bruckner wrote in the score, "Dedicated to my beloved God," Jansons played this magnificent work as sincerely as if it were dedicated to God. The live recording of Jansons' Bruckner No. 9 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra was made in March 2014, but the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra's live performance in this disc was made two months earlier, allowing us to confirm the difference in the sound of the orchestra and the interpretation of the performance. Naxos Japan