As realized by...

[Ralph]

A number of great composers have died without finishing a major work. Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony" is accepted as such and Bruckner's Ninth rarely is tinkered with. But some composers left either fragmentary notes for a piece or a single movement and the urge for later composer/musicologists to "complete" the work has often been irresistable. And with mixed results.

So we have several performing versions of Mahler's Tenth Symphony and a fairly successful "realization" of Elgar's Third Symphony. A weird and unconvincing Schubert "Seventh Symphony" is hard to find (I do have a Columbia CD of it which I haven't hear in years).

What do you think aboiut these post mortem compositional efforts? Do you have a favorite? Or one you particularly dislike?

[Brendan]

Bruckner's Ninth rarely tinkered with? I take it you don't have the fully orchestrated final movement as performed and recorded by Harnoncourt at the very least? Schubert's "Unfinished" has also been finished, as has a Tenth for little Franz.

I'd like to hear someone other than Harnoncourt do the full Bruckner 9.

[val]

I am against. Musicologists have not the talent of Schubert, Bruckner, Schönberg.
In the case of Schubert it is worse, because he had plenty of time to finish the 8th Symphony. Instead he preferred to compose a larger number of masterpieces (the 9th Symphony, the string Quintet, the piano Trios, the Quartet in G, the last Sonatas, Winterreise). If he didn't finish the work, it was his decision and who are we to decide against?

That also applies to operas. The final scene of Turandot is mediocre (Alfano was not Puccini).

There is only one situation when I think that the "realization" of the complete work is acceptable: it is when the composer left so much material and indications that the work of the musicologist becomes very simple.
The only cases of successful realization I remember are "Lulu" completed by Friedrich Cehra and Khovantchina completed by Rimsky-Korsakov.

[Ralph]

Bruckner's Ninth rarely tinkered with? I take it you don't have the fully orchestrated final movement as performed and recorded by Harnoncourt at the very least? Schubert's "Unfinished" has also been finished, as has a Tenth for little Franz.

I'd like to hear someone other than Harnoncourt do the full Bruckner 9.

*****

Well, "rarely" didn't exclude some attempts but I've never heard Bruckner's Ninth in concert with an ending.