Sir Simon Rattle's live recording of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony in 2006 received a mixed reception. I have myself had my reservations, ranging from mild to serious, regarding the success of some of his forays into Brahms, Strauss and Mahler, but this latest release seems to me to be the finest thing he has done with the Berlin Philharmonic to date.Some have expressed the usual concerns about a slight muddiness in the sound EMI has given him here, although I suspect that has more to do with the acoustics inh..
After finding much to love in Rattle's previous Bruckner 4th, also with the Berliners, I hoped that this reading would seal Rattle's success as a Brucknerian. In the "Romantic" Symphony, Rattle made his case by emphasizing the work's romantic qualities, letting pure lyricism come forth. But the 9th Symphony demands a certain commitment to a dark world that isn't all about joy. Could Rattle find meaning in a work that throbs with inherent spirituality? And could he make a persuasive case for this new com..
Bruckner struggled to complete this work. He was working on the orchestration on the last day of his life. While he lived to complete the draft of the finale, souvenir hunters walked off with pages of the score, including the all important coda. Starting in the 1970s William Carragan and (in this recording) Samale, Phillips, Cohrs & Mazzuca have worked on completions of performing versions of the surviving sketches. Many have failed to be convinced of the finale's greatness. I believe that this is due ..
