In reviewing Mario Venzago’s coupling of Bruckner’s Fourth and Seventh symphonies (11/11), I found the brightened textures revealing and not infrequently refreshing but thought some of the interpretative ideas equivocal at best. Here, in ‘Die Nullte’ and the First Symphony, the element of added interpretative interest works very much to he music’s advantage. Indeed, I’d say that Venzago’s reading of No 0 is among the finest I’ve ever heard, with some especially beautiful soft playing: the pppp last minute of the Andante quite took my breath away. Dialoguing violin motifs are shaped with great sensitivity, even as early as the first movement’s second subject (1'10").

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. For example, while the passage just mentioned sports subtle vibrato to help sweeten the texture, the chorale-like subject a couple of minutes later dispenses with it almost entirely. After the Andante takes its last sigh, the Scherzo jumps in dramatically – breaking the spell somewhat, but never mind, that’s obviously the intention. The Trio is almost too dreamy but the finale is excellently judged (ie Venzago’s voicing of the first pages), the Mendelssohnian scherzo-like passage at 2'17", light as thistledown. That’s Venzago’s way with Bruckner, bright, taut, transparent, anti-monumental and viewed from a Schubertian axis. His version of the First Symphony is cast along similar lines, with an additional quota of accelerating excitement for the close of the first movement, which fires away at a terrific lick. At 10'06" the eerily quiet violins sound as if they’re bowing pretty near the bridge (try from, say, 10'50"). Elsewhere, I was reminded of Dvo∑ák and, at around 6'46" into the Andante, the Nielsen of Helios, what with the manner of the string-writing and the kind of modulations used.

Marcus Bosch’s First with the Aachen Symphony, the concluding instalment of his set of the numbered symphonies – which uses the same ‘Linz’ version with revisions (edited by Leopold Nowak, 1953) as both Venzago and Simone Young – returns us to the kind of weighty approach already well known from various feted Brucknerians of yore, though without recourse to mannerism. His recording is roughly on a par with Young’s, though more resonantly recorded and swifter by around three minutes overall (Venzago is almost two minutes swifter still). Oddly, although Venzago achieves the more Schubertian textures, it is Bosch whose approach to the Andante is more reminiscent of Schubertian lyricism. He cues a propulsive Scherzo and his finale is particularly imposing: the quasi-fugal writing from 7'22" builds up a good head of steam and the closing pages are very exciting. So, vive la différence! The luminous and revealing Venzago set might be described as Bruckner for non-Brucknerians, the Bosch as an admirable conclusion to a fine cycle, worthy of comparison with the best, if not quite the best.