It seems that the Ninth is a limit. He who wants to go beyond it must pass away. […] Those who have written a Ninth stood too close to the hereafter.’ Arnold Schoenberg wrote those words in reference to Gustav Mahler, who had just died without ever having heard his own Ninth Symphony performed.
Anton Bruckner was apparently afraid of the fatal number as well: ‘I don’t want to start on my Ninth at all, I don’t dare’. However, very soon after the completion of his Eighth Symphony in September 1887, Bruckner started on his first drafts. Overall, work on the Ninth then dragged on over the long period from 1887 to 1896, having to be constantly interrupted because of the composer’s deteriorating health.
Bruckner finally died while working on the fourth movement – and his masterpiece dedicated to ‘the beloved God’ remained unfinished. Even without a finale, the three-movement work that survives is, of course, very impressive.
Here is a section of the Bruckner Symphony #9:
