Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic".(Sound recording review)

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic." Gunter Wand, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. Profil PHO6046.

Profil may make me think twice about live recordings. I usually don't care for them; they're too often vague and distant, with a plethora of audience noises in the background. But the several live recordings that Profil have remastered these past few years have been of generally excellent sound quality, with only an unfortunate applause at the end to remind one that they are, indeed, live. This recording of the Bruckner Fourth is no exception.

Gunter Wand, a specialist in Bruckner and Beethoven, was close to ninety when he recorded this symphony with the Munich Philharmonic in 2001. It would be one of his last-ever performances and the next-to-last time he would conduct the "Romantic" symphony, which he had been playing for close to sixty years. To say he knew the score inside and out by then would be an understatement.

Here's the thing: Wand always took his time developing the ideas in the music he played, but his age may have also had something to do with the broad, slow tempos he ...