A. Bruckner. Autograph sketches for the second movement (Scherzo) of the unfinished 9th Symphony, 1889

Anton Bruckner

Autograph sketches for the Scherzo movement of the unfinished Symphony no.9 in D minor, NOT RECORDED OR PUBLISHED IN SÄMTLICHE WERKE

written in pencil in Bruckner's shaky but indomitable hand, on up to 6 three-stave systems per page, with autograph heading and date (" IX te ! Scherzo 4. 1. 89."), some bar sequences numbered by the composer ("1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8..."), the pitches changed or confirmed by the composer in many places with letter-names and annotated by him in the margins, containing extensive autograph cancellations, revisions and corrections

4 pages, oblong 4to (c.27 x 32.5cm), 20-stave paper ("B & H. Nr. 16.A."), watermarked "BREITKOPF & HAERTEL LEIPZIG", inscription by Ferdinand Löwe ("Löwe IX te !") to upper inside corner of the first page, no place [Vienna], 4 January 1889, splitting along hinge, browning, central vertical crease, a few tiny marks and stains

THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BRUCKNER MANUSCRIPT TO BE OFFERED AT AUCTION IN RECENT YEARS.

BRUCKNER'S NINTH SYMPHONY RANKS ALONGSIDE SCHUBERT'S EIGHTH AND MAHLER'S TENTH AS ONE OF THE GREATEST UNFINISHED CREATIONS IN ALL MUSIC.

THIS 4-PAGE SKETCH, EVIDENTLY THE FIRST SURVIVING DRAFT FOR THE ICONIC SCHERZO, WAS UNKNOWN TO THE EDITORS OF BRUCKNER'S COLLECTED WORKS. 

The writing of his ninth symphony, one of the mightiest creations in the entire symphonic repertory, occupied the last nine years of Bruckner's life. Dedicated to 'dem lieben Gott', and with a famously unfinished finale, it represents the composer's musical testament, a truly sublime score into which Bruckner poured his unshakeable belief as well as his tortured doubts.

The present manuscript, unknown to the editors of Bruckner's works in the collected edition, is a continuity sketch for the first eighty-eight bars of the Scherzo (with its celebrated, hammered, drumbeat theme), and evidently represents Bruckner's first attempts to write the movement; a somewhat neater and more extended sketch for the movement, written on the same day (4 January 1889), is preserved in the Austrian National Library (Mus. Hs. 3196). These are the only two known sketches for the movement. The autograph score of the first three movements, as well as the bulk of autograph material relating to the finale, is also located in the Austrian National Library.

The first performance of the symphony, in a revised version, was given by Bruckner pupil Ferdinand Löwe (1865-1925) with the Wiener Konzertvereinsorchester, on 11 February 1903. The first performance of the work in its original form took place as late as 1932 in Munich under the baton of Siegmund von Hausegger.

LITERATURE

Anton Bruckner. Sämtliche Werke: ix ('Studienpartitur 2., revidierte Ausgabe'), ed. Leopold Nowak (1951); ix ('2. Satz...Scherzo und Trio: Entwürfe'), ed. Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs (1998); ix ('Finale'), ed. John A. Phillips (1996); ix ('1. Satz - Scherzo & Trio - Adagio'), ed. Benjamin Gunnar Cohrs (2001)

PROVENANCE

J.A. Stargardt, Berlin, Catalogue 700 (2014), lot 665