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| Teldec (Full price) (CD) ZK8 42921. From GK835642 (6/84). |
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It is ten years since the International Bruckner-Gesellschaft published the original, 1874 text of Bruckner's popular Fourth Symphony. Initially, performing musicians seemed to take little notice of the original version with its entirely different (enormously dramatic) Scherzo and substantially different finale. But Inbal and the Frankfurt RSO have put the matter to rights. Not only can we hear as well as study the 1974 Fourth, we can hear it in a reading, performance and recording of considerable eloquence and splendour. I originally reviewed the LP version, which was part of a set which also included interesting early versions of the Third and Eighth symphonies. On CD the performance seems even more splendid, a worthy counterpart to, say, Bohm's CD recording of the revised version of the symphony on Decca (411 581-2DH, 5/85). Mention, too, should be made of Holger Mattheis's witty sleeve design with its wry visual representation of the kind of image-juggling this recording of unfamiliar Bruckner involves us in.
RO