Anton Bruckner’s Ninth is unfinished: the composer was unable to complete the fourth movement. According to the recollections of his chambermaid he was working on the finale on the day of his death, 11 October 1896. The composer was aware he would be unable to finish his symphony, so he had the idea of rounding off the third (slow) movement with his own Te Deum. He had set out to compose a transitional section between the two works, but later gave up the idea.
The unfinished symphony received its world premiere in Vienna seven years after the composer’s death, in 1903, transcribed and conducted by Bruckner’s pupil and enthusiastic advocate, Ferdinand Löwe. Löwenot only shortened and re-orchestrated the work, but also ‘dampened’ the bold harmonic features in places. The original version was first published as late as in 1934. In the second half of the 20thcentury several attempts were made century to reconstruct the end of the finale based on surviving sketches, and recordings have been made of these experiments; however, the symphony is most often performed in its three-movement form, with or without the Te Deum as the “finale”.