Bruckner's Ninth Symphony is his last orchestral work, but he only completed three movements, toiling on the finale for two years before his death in 1896.
Composition History
Bruckner worked on his Eighth Symphony for nine years, longer than any other symphony, and it is considered a 'compendium generale' of his previous accomplishments.
Composer Biography
Arnold Schoenberg believed that any composer who wrote a Ninth Symphony, like Beethoven and Bruckner, was 'too close to the beyond'.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Ernst Bloch, a Jewish Marxist philosopher of Expressionism, noted that with Bruckner, 'song came back into the world, and a clear conscience to boot'.
Compositional Technique
The first movement of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony is one of the longest and grandest in symphonic literature, with 567 measures and numerous slow tempo passages.
Performer Biography
Carlo Maria Giulini, the conductor on this album, debuted with the Augusteo Orchestra in 1944 at a concert celebrating the liberation of Rome.
Compositional Technique
The Scherzo of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony begins with a complex dissonant chord after a one-measure rest and has the character of a danse macabre, influencing later composers like Shostakovich.
