Declining the invitation to join the river boat today has meant that I've been able to catch up with a broadcast of which I heard only the last half-hour or so when I was travelling at the beginning of this month. I'd quickly identified the Music I was hearing as from the Third Movement of Bruckner's Ninth - and would have switched off (not wanting just to hear the last quarter-hour or so) if it hadn't been for the brisker-than-I'm-used-to tempo. Taken att this "lick", I found it fascinating, and found myself thinking that this would be the sort of tempo needed if a Finale was "added" - and, sure enough, there was no applause at the end of the movement; instead the Finale began.
ahinton has regularly spoken for the need of the completed edition of the Finale (600 bars of pure Bruckner together with a "likely" Coda) to be included in performances of the Bruckner #9 - I had never been convinced, despite revelling in the Music of the Finale; I could always "hear the join", if you will. This performance, by the BBC Scottish SO conducted by Thomas Dausgaard, swept away my doubts and finale convinced me. I've been meaning to listen to the whole performance, but today has been the first opportunity that I've remembered to do so:
It's not a "flawless" performance (although the quality for a genuinely Live performance is astonishingly good) and the speeds may seem "too fast" compared with those adopted for the traditional "Slow Movement Finale" - even so, Dausgaard realizes the sense of accumulation and inexorability in the Third Movement whilst also creating a sense of momentum that propels the Music into the Fourth Movement. An astonishing achievement from everybody (performers and editors) concerned, and one I urge enthusiasts of this work to hear - with my very sincere apologies for having left this until there's only three days availability left.
I hope Dausgaard and the orchestra record their performance: with the miniscule errors ironed out in the studio, this should be a world-beater.
EDIT: Starts just after the 15min mark (ignore the "markers" on the site!) and ends about seventy-one minutes later. Introduced by Penny Gore, who doesn't tell us which "team of scholars and composers" edited the Finale, the little tease!
ahinton has regularly spoken for the need of the completed edition of the Finale (600 bars of pure Bruckner together with a "likely" Coda) to be included in performances of the Bruckner #9 - I had never been convinced, despite revelling in the Music of the Finale; I could always "hear the join", if you will. This performance, by the BBC Scottish SO conducted by Thomas Dausgaard, swept away my doubts and finale convinced me. I've been meaning to listen to the whole performance, but today has been the first opportunity that I've remembered to do so:
It's not a "flawless" performance (although the quality for a genuinely Live performance is astonishingly good) and the speeds may seem "too fast" compared with those adopted for the traditional "Slow Movement Finale" - even so, Dausgaard realizes the sense of accumulation and inexorability in the Third Movement whilst also creating a sense of momentum that propels the Music into the Fourth Movement. An astonishing achievement from everybody (performers and editors) concerned, and one I urge enthusiasts of this work to hear - with my very sincere apologies for having left this until there's only three days availability left.
I hope Dausgaard and the orchestra record their performance: with the miniscule errors ironed out in the studio, this should be a world-beater.
EDIT: Starts just after the 15min mark (ignore the "markers" on the site!) and ends about seventy-one minutes later. Introduced by Penny Gore, who doesn't tell us which "team of scholars and composers" edited the Finale, the little tease!
- seemed just a little more important 
Boulez could not tell the 5th from the 8th, or so he once claimed.
- I knew that you were referring to the Haitink Eighth 
. I deleted a passage from my OP making a similar comment about how - for me - the two performances summed up how the older way of conducting Bruckner has nothing left to "say" about the Music, whereas younger conductors (at least two of them "younger" than myself - just!) make the Music sound refreshed, vigorous, and vital.
Silly me.
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