Both of these recordings were set down in 2020 and have presumably been held back until now to coincide with the Bruckner bicentenary year. Roth’s decision to opt for the earliest version of each symphony brings us the edition of the First that Bruckner completed in Linz in 1866 and conducted there in 1868. Only Tintner, Schaller, Thielemann and Poschner have recorded it previously. Most recordings purporting to be the Linz version include the amendments Bruckner made in Vienna in 1877 and subsequent years, which result in a fuller and more effective conclusion to the finale but are not found in the original score. John Berky’s abruckner.com website is invaluable in clearing a path through the undergrowth of confusing information that appears on so many covers of recordings of the composer.

Roth’s interpretation of the First Symphony is fast-paced and energetic, with strongly differentiated dynamics. Indeed, ff passages in the first three movements typically sound more like fff, although it’s not until the finale that triple forte actually appears in the score. The result is an eruptive and exciting performance, but also one that carries a hint of brashness. Roth’s sparing use of vibrato in the strings makes the first movement’s second subject sound rather chaste, although it also brings a not inappropriate sense of purity to the Adagio. The performance is at its most successful in the finale, bringing one of Bruckner’s most perfectly crafted and inspired movements to a stirring and satisfying close. Overall, however, it’s not a recording I’d prefer to Schaller’s powerful and assured account on Profil.

The Second Symphony’s more lyrical and expansive nature finds Roth adopting a more restrained approach. Dynamics and other performance markings are carefully observed, but the performance eschews the forcefulness of the account of the First Symphony. It also lacks much of the dynamism of the other performance, not helped by a more recessed recording. In addition, the lack of vibrato in the strings is less suited to the Adagio of the Second Symphony than it was to the First, depriving the movement of its essential serenity and luminosity. Even the normally sublime solo horn at the end of the movement sounds disappointingly routine. Try the recordings of the same edition of the symphony by Bosch and Poschner to hear what’s missing here and elsewhere.