A newcomer to Bruckner’s Ninth hearing the opening 10 minutes of this recording might be forgiven for thinking that he had stumbled upon part of the slow movement. Marek Janowski is not the first conductor to begin the Ninth at a snail’s pace, trading symphonic motion for po-faced solemnity. The mage Celibidache and the priest-like Giulini might, on occasion and by sheer force of personality, convince us that the music can withstand such hieratic treatment but lesser mortals end up appearing dawdling and indecisive, not least because in the absence of a clear underlying pulse Bruckner’s highly elaborate three-part, five-theme 226-bar exposition simply doesn’t hang together.

Janowski is not quite the slowest on record. Midway through the exposition he does begin to take the music forward as it moves back into duple time (moderato, fig F, 8'09"). Alas, that (or something like that) is how he should have begun. Even here his tempo is slower than Bruno Walter’s is at the outset. Janowski’s failure with the first movement is the more disappointing given the fact that his account of the slow movement is exceptionally fine, the qualities of long-breathed control that make him so respected a Wagnerian finally coming into play. The Suisse Romande playing is also, by the standards of this movement on record, unusually accurate and well tuned.

The Pentatone recording is extremely refined though Walter’s 1960 Columbia SO CBS version has comparable clarity and even greater presence. Currently at budget-price, coupled with a memorable account of the Fourth Symphony, that remains the version to have.