Bruckner was working on the Ninth Symphony until the day he died. He left a stark and magnificent torso that marks the end of the 19th-century symphony – but he also left fragments and sketches for a magnificent finale that would cap his life’s work. In the latest realisation of a completion that has taken over 20 years, Bruckner’s finale crowns his musical last will and testament with an intense and visionary splendour. ‘Everything that is strange about this finale is 100% Bruckner,’ remarks Sir Simon Rattle. ‘And one can see the terror and the fear and the passion which he was going through in his life at that time.’
