Mario Venzago is a Bruckner revisionist, a man who poses fearless questions about what we think Bruckner’s music ‘ought’ to sound like in the 21st century. His interpretative theories make up half the booklet that accompanies this fourth instalment of his CPO Bruckner cycle, and stimulating reading it makes too, as Venzago demolishes – and clearly enjoys doing so – the idea that all conductors need to do is think big, think solemn, pour on lashings of string vibrato and, bingo, an authentic Bruckner is theirs for the taking.

That’s the theory, but the reality can be more problematic. Venzago has opted to record each volume of his cycle with a different orchestra to slam the misnomer that Bruckner essentially wrote the same symphony 10 times, which, I have to say, solves a problem that doesn’t really exist. The Berne orchestra are confident if disappointingly colourless at times in this repertoire. And while never in the league of the Tapiola Sinfonietta, with whom Venzago cut Symphonies Nos 0 and 1, the sweet-tempered sound Venzago coaxes out of the strings in the Third Symphony’s finale’s second theme (starting 1'13") is drop-dead gorgeous. Elsewhere, though, smudging brass (check out the trombones, first movement at 14'05" – ouch!) and needlessly pallid woodwind-playing have a tendency to let the side down.

But the real riddle wrapped in an enigma is how Venzago’s thoughtful and articulate Third could possibly be followed by this unsure, gawky Sixth. The tempo he chooses for the 2/2 first movement of the Third sits, as jazz musicians say, right in the pocket of the groove; when the double basses shift from emphasising the first and third to every beat, the music gains tremendous lift, undoubtedly aided by Venzago’s trimmed string section and lightness of touch; the subsequent string/woodwind duologues are more graceful dancing butterflies than weather-beaten cathedrals in sound.

In contrast to the inexorable rightness of the Third, the first movement of the Sixth Symphony is hurried – pacing and material weirdly out of sync, the cello-and-bass theme desperately needing more time to breathe. Whatever Bruckner’s Sixth ought to sound like circa 2013, it surely mustn’t sound tame and trivial; Venzago’s Third is state-of-the-art though. What a bizarre situation.