Bruckner was perhaps never exceeded in his tendency to revise his works and even tinker with them after they had appeared, and it is not uncommon to find recordings of his symphonies that include an alternate movement or two. However, conductor
Simon Rattle outdoes previous similar explorations. The
Symphony No. 4 in E flat major ("Romantic"), although relatively stable and compact in its final version, was no exception;
Bruckner discarded two entire movements and radically altered two others. Here,
Rattle offers the whole group of movements in performances recorded live in October 2021. The full symphony is performed in a new edition by
Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs (referred to, with needless complexity, as "Cohrs A04B"); that and the two discarded movements receive their world recorded premieres.
Rattle refers to the concert as a trip through
Bruckner's workshop, and that's an appealing way of putting it. In concert,
Rattle took a chronological approach, performing the earlier and discarded versions first and then ending with the complete symphony. That may have been preferable to what's heard here, with the extras on a second CD, although, of course, the listener is free to program the tracks in any order. Sample the earlier version of the finale at the end of the second disc, almost three minutes longer and much gnarlier than what
Bruckner eventually went with;
Bruckner's second thoughts weren't always better than his first, but they were in this case. As for
Rattle as a Brucknerian, he's very fine; the symphony has a majestic sweep. All those years in Berlin apparently imprinted some Germanic traditions on him. At any rate, any perfect Brucknerian will want to hear this. ~ James Manheim
![Mozart: Requiem [2022 Recording]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/8435408099530_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Mozart: Requiem [2022 Recording]")
