What a fine idea it would be, if a conductor existed who had the patience and expertise to carry it off, to issue in a single package Bruckner’s Third Symphony in its three separate editorial states – or the Fourth or Eighth symphonies in like manner. Not altogether conveniently, the new set offers just two states of the Third, plus a variant version of its 1877 Adagio.

Dubbed by Deryck Cooke ‘the least perfect of Bruckner’s nine symphonies (though not the least magnificent)’, the Third first appeared in 1873. The ‘First Definitive Version’, which commands the widest following among scholars if not conductors, dates from 1877. A foreshortened revision by Bruckner and Franz Schalk, widely used by the Szell-Böhm-Karajan-Wand generation and played here with some splendour by Johannes Wildner and his Westphalian orchestra, followed 12 years later.

Naxos already has in its catalogue a recording of the original 1873 version conducted by the late Georg Tintner (5/00). Adding it to the present set would probably have infuriated collectors who already own the Tintner. It would also have been a mismatch musically, given the leisurely, quasi-epic nature of Tintner’s reading. Not that Wildner is above reproach in the matter of internal consistency. Where the first movement is concerned, he takes the 1877 version relatively slowly (more or less ignoring the alla breve) but takes the 1889 revision (‘Mehr langsam. Misterioso’) rather more briskly. In the finale, he does the very opposite. There the opening Allegro and polka-cum-chorale are very much of a piece in his account of the 1877 but in his reading of the 1889 the polka has a riper, earthier, more Ländler-like tread.

Frankly, I can’t imagine many collectors wanting 1877/1889 under one roof. 1873/1878 or 1873/1889 would both make more sense, since there the contrasts are more palpable. I found Wildner and the Westphalians most at home in the 1889 version – but, then, it was ever thus. Whatever reservations commentators may have about the way Bruckner and Schalk tidied up the work, players relish the shortenings and fail-safe re-orchestrations.

Wildner’s blood-and-thunder performance of the 1889 makes a strong impact, powerfully recorded. His account of the 1877 is rather less sure-footed. The first movement gets off to a very limp start and tends to lack line and impetus thereafter. Gielen’s South-West German SO version has a more consistent grip and Haitink’s with the Vienna Philharmonic (now at mid price, coupled with the Eighth Symphony) is preferable to both if quality of orchestral playing weighs heavily with you.

Two of the finest accounts of the 1889 are currently incarcerated within complete cycles – Wand’s Cologne recording (RCA, 2/90) and Karajan’s with the Berliners (DG, 3/91) – and even the excellent VPO/Böhm no longer comes alone, though the coupling, a legendary account of the Fourth Symphony, is not to be sneezed at. In the circumstances, bargain hunters could do worse than buy the new Naxos and throw away CD 1.