His Last Adagio

There is a pained intensity

in the last movement
of Bruckner's last symphony;

 

you take it as a farewell to life,
the furrowed brooding caught

by a conductor who afterwards

 

scored a farewell to cancer

by jumping to his death

from his eleventh floor flat;

yes, the sleeve notes on the CD
did catch me off my guard.

The movement closes, silent as a scythe.

Author's Note

(Georg Tintner, conductor, 22 May 1917 - 2 October 1999)