Previous recordings of the Bruckner symphonic canon have sometimes included the unnumbered F minor and D minor entries in the series but none as yet has included all the different versions of the symphonies in one edition. Capriccio’s new cycle conducted by Markus Poschner, of which this is the first release, is aiming to include all 18 of the scores in the New Anton Bruckner Collected Works Edition being published in partnership with the Austrian National Library. As with Sony’s ongoing cycle conducted by Christian Thielemann, the project is due for completion in the Bruckner bicentenary year of 2024.

The Sixth Symphony is one of few major works of Bruckner not to be troubled by any textual issues and the new edition by John Williamson used here contains no significant differences from the Haas and Nowak scores used in other recordings. Poschner writes in the booklet note of the importance of questioning the score and separating ‘wrong tradition from true tradition’, and his interpretation is notable for its analytical approach to detail. The sudden drops in volume Bruckner indicates in the first movement are properly ear-catching here and the subsequent soft playing is wonderfully delicate. In the Adagio, one also hears the tremolando playing of the violas in bars 129 and 130 (from 11'27"), a small but important contribution to the orchestral texture often inaudible in other recordings. The clear and spacious recording ensures these and similar details are readily heard.

There’s more to a performance than detail, though, and these days there is a multiplicity of fine recordings of the Sixth Symphony for a listener to choose from. Poschner’s interpretation is at its best in the Adagio, the soaring violins in the second subject group supported by the songful and ardent playing of the cellos beneath. Heard alongside the versions by Wolfgang Sawallisch or Paavo Järvi, however, the other movements in Poschner’s recording sound slightly less involving, the recreative inspiration not quite at the same level. It’s definitely a series to watch but this first instalment is not an automatic must-have. Capriccio’s documentation, which includes an essay by the Bruckner scholar Paul Hawkshaw, is first-class.