Daniel Barenboim conducts Bruckner's Symphony No. 9

Bruckner's Ninth Symphony is the most poignant of unfinished symphonies, and yet, strangely, it also seems the most artistically complete. At the time of his death, Bruckner had written only three of the work's four movements. His doctor overheard him praying, "Dear God, let me get well soon; you see I need my health to finish the Ninth." God, in whom he so fervently believed, did not grant this request. Still, what Bruckner left is gripping. The opening movement ascends from a musical primordial haze to a sonorous climax, while the second-movement Scherzo is relentless in its power. In the Adagio finale, Bruckner explores new harmonic regions, hitherto unheard, before resolving all with a serenely hushed ending.

Returning to Carnegie Hall after a four-year absence, Daniel Barenboim—one of the great Bruckner conductors of our time—brings the cycle of the revered Austrian master's nine numbered symphonies to its close.

Photo: © Sheila Rock