Three Great Unfinished Symphonies

[vers la flamme]

Schubert, Bruckner & Mahler each have one great unfinished symphony in their catalogue, typically written late in the composer's career. Between these three (Schubert's 8th (or 7th, depending on how you number them), Bruckner's 9th, and Mahler's 10th), which is your favorite, and why?

For me, I'm rocking with Schubert. Schubert's Unfinished Symphony is one of the pieces that made me love classical music, and I still count it as a favorite. There is so much depth, passion, and intensity in such a small package. It seems Schubert never intended to finish it (having left the two movements alone for several years before his death) and honestly, he didn't need to. I love Bruckner and his 9th is one of my favorites, but the Schubert just edges it out. As for Mahler, he is one of my very favorite composers, but the 10th is not a work I've connected with greatly, or at least not yet.

Curious to see any thoughts.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Bruckner. While technically unfinished, it feels finished. I've heard completions of the finale, and they don't convince me one bit. Not only is it finished as it is, it's one of Bruckner's best works from a structural point of view. A fourth movement would have been a letdown.

[vandermolen]

I like all three but I have to go with Anton.

[Crudblud]

I'm tempted to go with Bruckner as well, since it exists in a substantial three movement version orchestrated in full by the composer. I have yet to hear a satisfactory "performing version" of Mahler 10, despite the valiant and largely successful efforts of Barshai to outdo his predecessors. However, it has been a long time since I listened to the Schubert, so for now I abstain.

[some guy]

Bruckner. While technically unfinished, it feels finished. I've heard completions of the finale, and they don't convince me one bit. Not only is it finished as it is, it's one of Bruckner's best works from a structural point of view. A fourth movement would have been a letdown.

Times two.

[Mirror Image]

Bruckner gets my vote! One of my favorites from him.

[relm1]

The answer is easy.  Sibelius No. 8.  And Shostakovich 16.  Also Mahler 10. 

[Sergeant Rock]

M10

Sarge

[vandermolen]

The answer is easy.  Sibelius No. 8.  And Shostakovich 16.  Also Mahler 10.

That's interesting. When Shostakovich died in 1975 I remember that some newspapers talked about him working on a 16th Symphony but, since then, I've never heard anything else about it.

[ritter]

Another vote for good old Anton...

[Florestan]

Schubert without any hesitation or second thoughts.

[Jo498]

I voted Bruckner but Schubert b minor is of course also extraordinary (and a piece I have listened to far more often than Bruckner's and Mahlers). Schubert's is really a different case than the others. If completed, would have been his first major orchestral piece and one of his first major instrumental pieces. As it is, I'd say the roughly contemporary Wanderer fantasy is his first breakthrough instrumental piece (not to take anything away from pieces like the "Trout quintet" or earlier piano sonatas but they are not as independent, original and heavyweight as the Wandererfantasie and a finished b minor symphony would have been even more weighty and original). Despite the beginning of the scherzo and the possibility that the Entr'acte used in some completions could have been a finale, it seems that Schubert had progressed too quickly and daringly with the first movements (especially the first, I'd say) so he didn't really know how to proceed. He had to retreat and regroup to some extent and accordingly the great C major is in some ways less daring and more classicist than the b minor. (Similarly a few years later, the finished piano sonata D 850 is more classicist and conservative than the fragment D 840, but here we also have a finished piece D 845 somewhat in the middle stylistically.)

[Symphonic Addict]

Bruckner followed by Schubert followed by Mahler.

[Maestro267]

That's interesting. When Shostakovich died in 1975 I remember that some newspapers talked about him working on a 16th Symphony but, since then, I've never heard anything else about it.

Once or twice I've seen words that indicate the orchestral version of his Suite on Verses of Michelangelo could be regarded as Symphony No. 16. Given its structural similarity with No. 14, it's not that farfetched an idea.

[Cato]

Bruckner followed by Schubert followed by Mahler.

I like Deryk Cooke's "performing version" of the Mahler Tenth and the version of the Finale for the Bruckner Ninth by the quartet of musicologists who finished the sketches for the Bruckner Ninth, especially this one:

[asin]B007O3QC8K[/asin]

[MusicTurner]

Mahler completed for me, if that counts. A personal choice though, and it's tough facing the great Anton work. Otherwise, it would be Anton's 9th.

For Schubert, I prefer the 9th to the 8th. Not that the 8th isn't impressive.

[vandermolen]

Glazunov's 9th, Tubin's 11th and Elgar's 3rd also come to mind as potentially great unfinished symphonies.

[Symphonic Addict]

Glazunov's 9th, Tubin's 11th and Elgar's 3rd also come to mind as potentially great unfinished symphonies.

Thumbs up for the first two. 

[vandermolen]

Thumbs up for the first two. 

I'm really sorry that Glazunov never finished Symphony No.9 and find the first movement to be very moving and poignant.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Love the Bruckner and Schubert, the Mahler not so much.

I think for an "unfinished" work, the Bruckner best succeeds in feeling completely "finished." But for an unfinished Schubert work, I prefer the C major piano sonata D. 840 for its extraordinarily powerful first movement and tragic andante.