This exceptional new recording of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony is the more remarkable when one considers how rarely down the years the LSO has engaged with this repertoire, let alone recorded it. This is not, of course, Simon Rattle’s first recording of the Fourth; nor should we forget that the symphony has been in his repertoire since the early 1970s – an even longer span of time than that enjoyed by Christian Thielemann, whose similarly remarkable, albeit very different, Vienna Philharmonic recording was released this time last year. </p>

<p>Rattle’s 2006 Berlin Philharmonic account was broadly paced, with a predictably weighty sonic mass that was not especially well recorded by EMI. The newer version is the very reverse: a beautifully articulated, free-flowing performance, underwritten by a pulse that remains in the 62-68 metronome-mark range throughout all four movements. Bruno Walter did something similar in a late-gathered and wisely led 1960 Los Angeles recording, though Rattle’s control of pulse is superior to Walter’s, while the playing of the LSO far outshines that of CBS’s randomly assembled Columbia SO. </p>

<p>The playing here has a refinement and grace that any of today’s leading German orchestras would be hard-pressed to match. Nor is this merely a matter of rhythm and phrase. Rarely, if ever, have I heard a performance of the Fourth that pays such careful attention to the score’s vast number of <em>pianissimo</em> and triple <em>piano</em> markings. Were these a tactic to tame the unruly orchestras of old, or part and parcel of Bruckner’s musical vision? The latter, I’d think, after hearing this particular performance.</p>

<p>As to the recording, who would imagine that a 400-seat concert and rehearsal venue, LSO St Luke’s, would be a suitable place in which to record a Bruckner symphony? In the event, it fits the performance like a glove. The subtlety and, where necessary, controlled power of the LSO’s playing is caught by the Classic Sound engineers with a skill that makes the hall seem bigger than it is, while losing nothing of the all-important intimacy of instrumental touch that’s a crucial part of the performance’s appeal.</p>

<p>To all outward appearances, the Fourth is the most settled of Bruckner symphonies, despite being in reality the most extensively modified. We’re given a glimpse of some of those modifications on the new set’s second CD, which charts changes made by Bruckner after his decision to remake the original 1874 score. These include a new and soon to be discarded 1876 Scherzo and Trio – ‘perhaps the worst composition of Bruckner’s maturity’ writes Robert Simpson, a view not entirely shared by Stephen Johnson in a characteristically civilised booklet essay – as well as Bruckner’s first attempt at solving the ‘finale’ problem with the so-called <em>Volksfest</em> (‘People’s festival’) finale of 1878.</p>

<p>I’m not sure how useful all of this is to the general collector. The <em>Volksfest</em> has been recorded before (though not as well), while it’s Bruckner’s cut version of the ‘final’ finale (a 62-bar cut beginning 12 bars after fig O in the Nowak edition) that’s used on disc 1. To hear the symphony in its usual ‘complete’ form you need to play disc 1 tracks 1-3 followed by disc 2 track 4. </p>

<p>That decision, and all others here, are based on a new 2021 ‘Urtext’ edited by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs. What differences there are is difficult to ascertain, given that the edition is currently available only for hire to conductors, orchestras and recording companies. The new set, needless to say, is billed as a ‘world premiere recording’.</p>

<p>So forget editions and enjoy instead what must be the finest account of a Bruckner symphony in the LSO’s 110-year-long recorded history.