The last version of the 1866 ‘Linz’ edition of Bruckner’s First that I reviewed was Mario Venzago’s with the Tapiola Sinfonietta. Writing in that context I observed that ‘one of Venzago’s virtues as a Bruckner interpreter is in the way he takes on aspects of period performance practice, moderating the use of vibrato rather than taking a doctrinaire line against it, which means that both its employment and its absence have expressive effect’. Turning now to Marek Janowski’s meatier version of the same music with the Suisse Romande Orchestra conjures quite different associations, though a certain Schubertian axis is common to both versions, due principally to the specific cast of Bruckner’s melodic writing at that time. Here the presence of a solo cello at around 1'48" more conjures the image of Liszt’s ‘Gretchen’ (as in A Faust Symphony). Janowski keeps a tighter rein on the movement than does Venzago: he’s closer in spirit to two other relative newcomers (mentioned in the same previous review), Marcus Bosch in Aachen and Simone Young in Hamburg, but claims in addition a degree of muscularity that makes for even more forceful climaxes. Janowski’s Scherzo is very high-energy, his finale, Beethovenian in its urgency, a fraught but ultimately victorious journey with excellent trumpets and timpani at the end. He takes significantly more time over the Andante than Venzago does (12'41" as opposed to 11'09"), but sustains the slower tempo well.

I like Janowski’s Bruckner, its basic honesty and refusal to superimpose ‘personality’ over the composer’s own, a virtue that perhaps works better on earlier instalments of the cycle (ie Symphonies Nos 5-9); but while a little special pleading does no harm with the First (hence the attraction of Venzago’s leaner, more attenuated approach), Janowski’s consistency is ample reason to recommend his version. Sound is excellent, the orchestral playing good if not quite in the Philharmonic class.