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555933-34bk Bruckner US 08/07/2003 11:39 am Page 5 findings of serious source scholarship. This by no movement performance of the Ninth in no way New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia DDD means applies only to Bruckner: in general, dogmatic corresponds to Bruckner’s conception. To act and at the same time uninformed adherents of the retrospectively as if Bruckner needed to be spoken for, The New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia was formed in 1996 from two orchestras from the northern Ruhr BRUCKNER 8.555933-34 dubious notion that only a composer’s final score has or to overrule his wishes, is not only to adopt a superior district, the Westphalian Symphony Orchestra Recklinghausen and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of any validity enjoy rejecting completions of fragmentary attitude, but is moreover an act of profound disrespect Gelsenkirchen. Since 1997, the orchestra has worked under the guidance of their Music Director Johannes Wildner, works. Here, as the conductor and musicologist Peter toward the composer and his musical legacy. Even in its who has developed a far-reaching concept for the artistic and organisational merger of the two existing orchestras, Gülke once fittingly put it, “intellectual sloth surviving fragmentary state the Finale is first and and a strong position in the region. The tasks of the orchestra are very broadly spread. It serves as the major full Symphony No. 9 compromises itself with the trappings of humility”. foremost Bruckner’s own music - whether one symphony orchestra of the region, with a series of nine symphony concerts and several special concerts annually. Bruckner himself expressly wished the Ninth to welcomes or regrets the radicalism of its form and Gelsenkirchen, Recklinghausen and Kamen serve as permanent concert venues, as well as the whole northern Ruhr (with reconstructed Finale) conclude with the Te Deum as the “best substitute” content - and represented for him an indispensable area. At the same time, the New Philharmonic Orchestra is also the opera orchestra of the Opera House in should he not complete the instrumental final component of his last, four-movement symphony. Gelsenkirchen. Considerable importance is given to activities for children and young people, and thanks to private movement; a pronouncement for which we should sponsors and enormously active teachers and parents it has been possible to reach a great number of children and New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia actually be grateful, for what composer near death young people in schools and thereby to win new audiences. Another important element is found in collaboration Johannes Wildner thinks to take such precautionary measures? For this Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs with choirs from the region for performances of large-scale oratorios and other major choral works. The orchestra reason alone there should be no question that a three- Translation: John A. Phillips has appeared with a number of distinguished conductors and soloists, has embarked on a demanding series of recordings and undertaken tours abroad, notably, in 2000, to Beijing. Johannes Wildner Born in Austria, Johannes Wildner studied conducting, violin and musicology, and was a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. After positions as chief conductor of the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Ko‰ice in Slovakia from 1990 to 1993, of the Prague State Opera from 1994 to 1995), and as First Permanent Conductor of the Leipzig Opera from 1996 to 1998, he has since 1997 been Generalmusikdirektor of the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia, an orchestra based in Recklinghausen which is also the opera orchestra of the opera house in Gelsenkirchen. In addition to his position in Germany, Johannes Wildner has also been supporting the restructuring process of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra, as their Music Director since 2002. He has appeared as a guest conductor of major opera houses, festivals and orchestras, including the opera houses of Graz and Leipzig, the opera festival Mozart in Schönbrunn in Vienna, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the MDR-Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the Vienna Radio Symphony, the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the New Zealand Symphony, the Taipei National Symphony and the China Philharmonic Orchestra. Johannes Wildner has recorded more than forty CDs and videos, including complete versions of Die Fledermaus and Così fan tutte, as well as Bruckner’s Third and Ninth Symphonies with the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Westphalia for Naxos. 8.555933-34 5 6 8.555933-34 555933-34bk Bruckner US 08/07/2003 11:39 am Page 2 Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) performing version of the Finale. This pioneering its completion. The composition, in all considerably marks, the missing material ‘synthesized’ from known which, as in the Finale of the Eighth, would have Symphony No. 9 achievement provided impetus for long overdue longer than six hundred measures, originally extended material through the use of Bruckner’s own completed the circle. research on all the manuscript sources for the Ninth, significantly further than what survives today, and was compositional techniques. It is thus unjustified to speak Following the crescendo passage sketched by (With Finale reconstructed by Samale - Phillips - Cohrs - Mazzucca) which the director of the Bruckner Complete Edition, apparently largely complete by the summer of 1896. of any kind of free, imitatory composition having been Bruckner at the outset of the coda, the arrangers realised Leopold Nowak, was no longer able to undertake. Although some of the later, definitive bifolios have undertaken. an overlay of the principal themes of each of the four To this day, Anton Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony the first editions. In 1929 the Bruckner Complete Shortly before his death in 1991, he entrusted the task to been lost, the continuity of approximately 560 Bruckner achieved a form in the Finale which took movements as the first climax of the coda, which certain languishes in a purgatory of misunderstanding, false Edition was begun for just this reason, in 1934 the Australian musicologist and composer John A. measures, up to the end of the recapitulation of the sonata structure as a starting-point, but which, in its early Bruckner scholars claim to have seen in a sketch interpretation, appropriation, even barbaric publishing the original score of the Ninth, edited by Phillips. This extensive project on the Ninth comprises chorale, can readily be demonstrated. The great daring and originality, brings the motivic since lost; here it constitutes a logical point of arrival. mishandling, having long fallen “prey to taste” Alfred Orel, together with a study volume which, for the ten volumes. Phillips painstakingly ordered and instrumentation of the c. 220-measure exposition was developments of the first three movements to a This is succeeded by the chorale theme in eight (Adorno). Bruckner had scarcely taken his last breath first time, contained transcriptions of many of the systematised the scattered manuscripts. His detailed probably complete; many bifolios carry Bruckner’s conclusion; the movement is thus indispensable to an measures - derived from Bruckner’s harmonisation of when souvenir hunters swooped down on the Finale manuscripts. But Orel omitted several sources, investigations of paper and handwriting resolved many remark “finished”. In the second half, the lost bifolios understanding of the whole symphony. The principal the chorale by the strings during the recapitulation of manuscripts lying around the room where he died, scattered as they were to the four winds; his details of the Finale’s genesis. Moreover Phillips was 15, 20, 25, 28 and 31 constitute gaps in the score, the theme, with its powerful strides, defies all possibility of the second group - and an eight-measure realisation of which was only secured some time later. The executors presentation was unclear and full of mistakes. Apart thoroughly acquainted with the theoretical systems on contents of which can largely be reconstructed from the development by virtue of its repetitive structure. At the Bruckner’s ascending chorale passage. The realisation of his estate entrusted Bruckner’s pupil Joseph Schalk from that, his edition of the score, like Nowak’s 1951 which Bruckner founded his compositional technique. foregoing sketches. same time it encompasses the entire spectrum of the of the sketch for the cadence corresponds with the to inquire into the correlation of the remaining 75 score reprint of it, comprised only the first three movements. The definitive performing version of the Finale, Furthermore, sketches have been found to the coda, chromatic scale and so claims for itself an all-embracing climax of the Adagio and the coda of the first bifolios for the Finale of the Ninth. Joseph died on The Te Deum was first published separately in the published in 1991 by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca long believed lost - a crescendo passage of c. 24 status. The second theme, invariably called the “song movement. This is followed immediately by Bruckner’s 7th November 1900 without having undertaken the task. Complete Edition in 1961 without any reference as to its owes its validity primarily to his insights. measures based on the opening motive and a brief period” by Bruckner, is derived directly from the concluding pedal-point. Above this the arrangers His brother Franz quietly took the manuscripts into his intended function with regard to the Ninth, although The composition