those wanting further information about this work (still in our downloads section, posted after its March premiere last work) can find an article and an interesting descriptive Danish/English PDF over here (http://www.kb.dk/en/nb/dcm/udgivelser/klenau/9_symfoni.html), just found it... it seems that the score has been published and a CD (possibly of that performance, so it may not be in our downloads section for long?) may be in preparation from Da Capo records, not sure.
Apparently the work was only found among his papers as recently as 2005- didn't know that...
... oh. the PDF I mentioned?
It's the ENTIRE Klenau 9th Symphony with an interesting preface, some manuscript pages, followed by, it seems- just looking- the whole darned typeset score. As with their Nielsen edition, the Royal Danish Library is making some things available for free download, and this is one of them. The PDF can be downloaded from that page I just linked... (he points out btw that the composer's 2nd & 3rd & 6th symphonies, from Dundonnell's list awhile back, should have "have not survived complete" or "incomplete" pinned clearly next to them...) - they only recorded a few of his symphonies awhile back, avoiding some because they were missing (nos. 8 & 9) at that point (and have been found since), some because, if ever really fully finished (maybe no.3 was- it may have been performed?) the materials are lost and they survive only in piano score or otherwise incompletely etc. ...)
Thanks, Eric!
I am reminded that it has a most beautiful, lyrical adagio.....
It does indeed have a most beautiful Adagio. Having finally got round to buying the CDs (cheap at present at jpc), I found it a much more interesting and varied work than the reviews have suggested. Of course, it is ultra-serious and, at 89 minutes and eight movements, very long. But listening to it I found, as with (say) Furtwängler 2, an earnestness and sincerity that were hard not to warm to.
Here's the jpc link:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/sinfonie-9/hnum/2717391 (https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/sinfonie-9/hnum/2717391)
I agree with you Alan, i beleive that even with its flaws and its longueurs the 9th is an important work...which made me even more shocked when I read Gramophone's excoriating review.
Since I loved all the previous Klenau cd's (especially the 7th) I had bought the 9th right away, and I had already listened to it a couple times when the review came out...and I could hardly believe the reviewer was talking about the same work.
This is really the worst kind of review in my view. It succesfully combines jingoism and snobbery, yet remains implicit in its criticism of Klenau's oeuvre where one should be explicit. Thankfully, the days that Gramophone reviews really mattered are some years behind us.