Bruckner's Abbey

[Cato]

I have to say I find BOTH the reconstruction here and the performance very fine.  As with all reconstructions I am pleased to have the option of listening to them or not.  I think with Bruckner 9 we are all so imprinted with the extraordinary ending of the Adagio that anything following seems superfluous.  Certainly the big major key ending of this new completion can seem a little 'obvious' after that sublime Adagio.  But given Bruckner's track record I think it is very reasonable to assume he had in mind just such a conclusion......

Yes, the "imprinting" can be a powerful influence, but...Bruckner did compose a Finale, and it was complete, at least in a "short score."

So I do not believe he would agree with the claim that the first three movements should be enough to represent his intentions for the work.

I was very moved by the reconstruction of the last movement.

Even when I had only heard the MIDI "performance," I could tell that this would be quite worthy of Bruckner and not some sort of Frankenstein's monster.

So yes, quite moving!!!  😇

[Wanderer]

...we are all so imprinted with the extraordinary ending of the Adagio that anything following seems superfluous. 

Not all. I (and I assume many others) was never satisfied with the Adagio as a finale. And Bruckner was so adamant that his Ninth was not to be performed as a three-movement bleeding chunk that he specified the Te Deum be performed as a finale if he did not manage to finish the fourth movement. 

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Not all. I (and I assume many others) was never satisfied with the Adagio as a finale. And Bruckner was so adamant that his Ninth was not to be performed as a three-movement bleeding chunk that he specified the Te Deum be performed as a finale if he did not manage to finish the fourth movement.

Doesn't matter. The three-movement version of this symphony is what he completed and I'm glad so many conductors/orchestras have performed it. The Te Deum as a finale to the 9th doesn't make any sense.

[ChamberNut]

100% satisfied with the three movement Adagio finale. Don't mess around with my B9, my favourite symphony of all time.