I'm with David on this, of course.  Few music lovers would be without,
e.g., the Mozart Requiem or Puccini's Turandot or Bartok's Viola Concerto,
among other repertory works rendered "complete" by other hands.  Of
course, Bernstein refused to consider a completed Mahler 10th, but then,
that was not the first or only time that Lenny was flat out wrong.

What one hears in either the William Carragan or
Samale/Mazzuca/Phillips/Cohrs completion of the Bruckner 9 Finale is 2/3
Bruckner, 1/3 educated speculation based on sketches and verbal clues
from Bruckner.  What Bruckner left behind is also, IMO, some incredibly
fine music---fine late Bruckner that cries out to be heard in performance.
The coda must remain speculative, unless further folios or manuscript
pages turn up from "private collections".

Bruckner did not specifically express a hope that other hands finish the
Ninth.  His was an explicit partnership with God, and "if the Good Lord
does not grant me time to finish it, he'll have only Himself to blame."
to paraphrase.  In that case, Bruckner did specify that the Te Deum be
played as a Finale.  What is important--and undeniable--is that the
composer did contemplate his own failing health and mortality and never
sanctioned consideration of the three-movement torso as in any form or
fashioned "finished", or standing as "an artistic whole".  One may infer
from this, with ample justification, an imperative to either fashion a
performable orchestral finale or use the Te Deum in lieu of the orchestral
finale.  In this sense, the work of Carragan and SMPC does indeed fit
with the composer's will.

The musical and artistic merit of their work is an entirely different
consideration, of course.  As a Bruckner lover, I hear it and I say,
Halleluia!

John Proffitt
KUHF-FM Houston