It is an article of faith of musical history that Bruckner's Ninth Symphony is complete in its incompleteness: a shattering, three-movement torso, whose emotional effect is heightened because Bruckner did not live to complete its finale. On his deathbed, he suggested that his Te Deum, for chorus, soloists and orchestra, could be used as a replacement last movement, but the combination has never caught on. Michael Tilson Thomas resurrected the idea in his performance with the London Symphony Orchestra, segueing the end of the slow movement into the Te Deum.

The piece created a crashing finality in the LSO's performance, with the monumental volume produced by the orchestra and the London Symphony Chorus, but as a conclusion to the emotional journey of the Ninth Symphony, the Te Deum made little sense. The effect was of a dislocation between the unresolved musical doubt at the end of the Adagio third movement, and the blazing certainty of the Te Deum's opening. Bruckner's planned conclusion to the symphony was altogether different: as his copious sketches reveal, the finale would have explored the ambiguous musical landscapes of the rest of the piece, instead of capping the structure with easy, immediate splendour.

But though Tilson Thomas's experiment could not answer the questions posed by Bruckner's incomplete symphony, his performance of the three extant movements created an emotional desperation that cried out for a gesture of resolution. He seized on the lyrical passages of the first movement, and these moments of unclouded melody were visions of calm in the midst of the violence around them. The climax of the Adagio was a furious exclamation, representing not only a musical impasse, but also the culmination of a journey into a spiritual abyss, realised with vivid intensity by the LSO players. The memory of this tortuous dissonance lingered long after the climactic notes of the Te Deum had faded.