When I opened the CD case for this useful coupling of Bruckner’s two ‘nullified’ symphonies I fully expected to find two CDs but, no, Coviello very helpfully accommodates the two works on a single 78 minute disc. Had Marcus Bosch taken Eliahu Inbal’s option and played the F minor Study Symphony’s sizeable exposition repeat (all four minutes’ worth), then things might have worked out differently; but, like Georg Tintner (Naxos) and the excellent Stanisaw Skrowaczewski (Oehms), Bosch settles for a single-tier exposition. ‘No 00’ and ‘No 0’ aren’t quite the close relations they might at first seem to be, as the next symphony after ‘No 00’ is No 1; then comes ‘No 0’, followed by No 2. What’s for sure is that both works were declared gilt nicht (doesn’t count) by Bruckner, hence the rather unflattering designation.

The relatively classical F minor was written in 1863 as an exercise under Otto Kitzler’s instruction in form and orchestration. In performance terms, Inbal and his Frankfurt players cut the stronger profile but Bosch’s light, neatly dispatched reading of the first movement works well. He shapes the score with an attentive ear, making the most of Bruckner’s imaginative instrumentation (ie in the telling alternation of winds and strings from 5'42" and the tougher-grained tutti shortly afterwards). At just 10'18", Bosch’s account of the second movement is significantly swifter than Inbal (13'11"), Skrowaczewski (12'26") or Tintner (12'36"), mainly because he takes a faster approach to the animated middle section.

The D minor Symphony (‘No 0’) is both better known and a far better work, well on the way to the glories of mature Bruckner, especially the slow movement. Bosch’s lively opening contrasts markedly with the slow, purposeful, even a little downtrodden Lorin Maazel (whose Munich performance nonetheless has bags of character), but for me the two ideal interpreters of this piece are Bernard Haitink (newly reissued as part of the ‘Haitink Symphony Edition’) and Skrowaczewski, both performances part of fine complete cycles. So where does this leave Bosch’s coupling? Lively, interpretatively sympathetic, well played, reverberantly recorded and a useful appendage to cycles that you may already own. But were I to recommend seperate CDs of the two symphonies, I’d opt, where available, for Inbal or Skrowaczewski in ‘No 00’ and Skrowaczewski or Haitink in ‘No 0’.