To hear two distinguished Wagnerians‚ Knappertsbusch and Goodall‚ trying conclusions with Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony makes for an interesting comparison‚ but in the end there is no contest. Goodall’s performance is not only vastly slow but it is also clearly inadequate as a piece of symphonic conducting. Sluggish tempos render the argument stillborn‚ something which is made worse by a lack of impulse in the playing. (Even in the well­paced Scherzo‚ the no more than patchily proficient playing by the BBCSO has a sullen‚ down­in­the­mouth quality.) The epic struggle to establish the tonic in the first movement is powerfully sounded (fig L‚ 9'48") but the argument goes nowhere before or after – astonishing‚ in what is the most tautly argued of all Bruckner first movements. There is a further problem with the mighty Adagio which Bruckner – sensing how much climax­building his finely honed ideas were required to sustain – marked ‘Noble‚ slow; but not dragging [my emphasis]’‚ an instruction Goodall plainly ignores. The finale suits the Goodall approach best since the sense of nobility and inner repose he seems to want to convey is part and parcel of this movement’s character. But even here there continue to be failures of conducting and playing‚ beginning in bar 3 where the entire brass section comes in late. The orchestra is in better shape in the 1971 Wagner extracts. Janet Baker sings the Wesendonck Lieder with sympathy‚ insight‚ and rare breath control‚ but why buy this BBC Legends set when her superb 1975 studio recording – ‘a recording for the treasury’ observed John Steane at the time – is to be had far more cheaply? By comparison‚ Knappertsbusch’s live 1951 Berlin performance is a cogently thought­out symphonic study‚ taken at a living pace‚ and thrillingly played by an orchestra whose feeling for the piece is impassioned almost to excess. ‘The legendary performance in superb sound’ screams the Archipel cover. (All you get. There are no notes.) As 1951 radio tapes go‚ these are fairly good. There is very little overload or dropout and the sound has admirable presence. The strings are made to sound far more waspish than they clearly were‚ but the Berlin playing often transcends the recording. (For example‚ the exalted cello colloquies in the slow movement‚ figs C­E‚ 4'28"­7'52".) Knappertsbusch was always a maverick where Bruckner texts are concerned. The text used here is not Haas and is not free of spurious retouchings – one or two hefty rallentandos‚ a surprising diminuendo on horns and trumpets as they bay into the dark at the end of the first movement‚ and (a real collector’s item) a cymbal clash on the finale’s first torrential assault on C major (bar before Hh‚ 14'50"). The finale is the least composed part of Knappertsbusch’s reading‚ thrilling though much of it is. Among recordings from this period‚ I would judge the Knappertsbusch superior‚ both technically and as a performance‚ to either of Furtwängler’s 1949 Berlin versions. The Goodall is nowhere‚ even in BBC Legends’ own list‚ which includes a not very good Horenstein (6/99) and an inspired Barbirolli. In my latest round of comparisons‚ Giulini’s lofty yet vivid 1984 Vienna Philharmonic performance impressed me deeply. You don’t have to be a Wagnerian to get to the heart of Bruckner.