Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9

Anton Bruckner spent his last eight years accumulating plans, sketches and outlines of his Ninth Symphony. Bruckner settled on his favourite key of D minor, which he associated with the mysterious, the majestic and the solemn. “If the good Lord will just allow me to finish this work,” he allegedly said to his doctor, even when it was actually already too late. Bruckner most certainly must have perceived the inability to provide his Ninth Symphony, which he viewed as the very apotheosis of his art, with a finale as a serious personal failure.

Mariss Jansons, chief conductor

Mariss Jansons was chief conductor of the Concertgebouworkest from 2004 to 2015. Since 2003 Jansons has been music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has made numerous appearances throughout the world as a guest conductor of the Berlin, the Vienna and the London Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as the leading orchestras in the United States.