A deeply devout Roman Catholic, Bruckner dedicated his unfinished Ninth Symphony “to the beloved God”. He completed the third movement on November 30, 1894, adhering to the traditional four-movement structure of his symphonies. Work on the finale began on May 24, 1895, just over a year before his death. Realizing he wouldn’t have time to complete the fourth part, the seriously ill composer expressed a wish that his Te Deum be performed in place of the culmination.

Despite its unfinished state, the Ninth Symphony finds a profound sense of closure in its final measures. A remarkable retrospective emerges, weaving together themes from Bruckner’s previous works: the Miserere from his Mass in D minor, the Adagio from the Eighth Symphony, and a fragment of the opening theme from the Seventh Symphony. This poignant reflection, occurring before the intended conclusion, adds a profound layer of meaning to the incomplete masterpiece. Austrian critic and musicologist Walter Weidringer aptly noted that the Ninth Symphony “may be taken as one of those examples from music history that prove that even fragments can display a degree of completion which no longer seems capable of improvement”.

Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony underwent a tumultuous journey before reaching its intended form. In 1903, conductor Ferdinand Loewe premiered three movements in Vienna, significantly altering the orchestration against Bruckner’s wishes. It wasn’t until 1931, through the tireless efforts of musicologist Robert Haas, that the symphony was meticulously stripped of these extraneous layers. Finally, in 1932, the Ninth Symphony received its true premiere, performed as Bruckner originally conceived and composed it.