Don’t be deceived the number: Bruckner completed his so-called ‘Nullte’ in 1869, one year after the First Symphony, but quickly consigned the manuscript to the bottom drawer, scribbling on it the words ‘Nur ein Versuch’ (‘Merely an attempt’). Despite its foibles, the D minor Symphony is both an immensely endearing statement and a key

work in his output, presaging as it does many a stylistic trait and symphonic procedure in the masterworks to come.

This is the sixth instalment in Simone Young’s Bruckner odyssey for Oehms Classics and she presides over a conscientious, deeply considered reading, beautifully played by her Hamburg orchestra (whose woodwind, sadly, tend to get somewhat obscured in any bigger tuttis). Is it all, perhaps, a tad low in voltage and lacking something in canny profile? By chance, I’d just caught up with another live ‘No 0’, namely Lorin Maazel’s Bavarian RSO version (BR-Klassik, 2/11), the opening salvo in that partnership’s absorbing cycle which took place in Munich between January and March 1999. In the majestic opening Allegro, Maazel adds nearly two minutes to Young’s timing but pulls it off through sheer determination and iron grip, as well as his consummate control of blend, texture and dynamics. He also takes a more flowing view of the deeply meditative slow movement without any loss of devotional glow and extracts greater expressive fibre from the Scherzo’s lovely G major Trio section than I would have ever thought possible. Not that Young’s isn’t an impressive traversal – far from it – but I don’t think I’d turn to her version in preference to the Maazel, let alone predecessors from such tried-and-trusted Brucknerians as Haitink (Philips), Barenboim (DG), Chailly (Decca), Tintner (Naxos) and Skrowaczewski (Arte Nova).

Bottom line: those collecting Young’s Hamburg cycle can safely take the plunge; others may be less easily persuaded to part with their cash.