This is the draft of the putative “Fourth Symphony” Bruckner offered a predictably sceptical Vienna Philharmonic in 1874. It is an unsatisfactory piece, different in many essentials from the completed masterpiece of 1880, which post-dates the Fifth Symphony and is contemporary with the Sixth. Mainly of interest to students of artistic process, it was first published in 1975 and recorded in 1982 by Inbal and the Frankfurt Radio SO as part of an absorbing four-LP set that also included first versions of the Third and Eighth symphonies.

Inbal’s account of the Fourth has had the field more or less to itself since then; nor does the newcomer outsmart it, though it does, I suppose, provide useful back-up in an uncertain market. The superbly recorded Stuttgart horns have a refulgence Inbal’s can’t quite match but player for player the two ensembles are much of a muchness. Both conductors understand that the slow movement has the character of a free-flowing processional; both work wonders with the rejected Scherzo; both trample flat the finale’s unpretentious yet important pastoral theme two bars after fig C with too quick a tempo. In the first movement, Inbal’s tempi are generally less driven than Norrington’s.

Score-watchers will find a couple of deviations from the 1975 Critical Edition in the new recording. At I 201-13 (5'04") there is solo violin (rather odd) and at IV 225-26 (6'01") an added drum (rather good). Bruckner made the suggestions for a Berlin performance that never took place. The Viennese were not alone in harbouring doubts.