• Tracks

This 2 CD album issued by Naxos features both the 1877 version (with the scherzo coda) and the 1889 version. Also included is an intermediate 1876 revision of the second (adagio) movement that underwent further revision in 1877. Both versions are performed by orchestras today, but many prefer the 1877 version as being closer to what Bruckner really intended as opposed to what he thought would more likely be performed. (The original 1873 version was recorded by Georg Tintner and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. On these recordings, the 1877 version is almost 10 minutes longer than the 1889 version. That's partly the result of the Westphalian orchestra taking slightly faster tempos in performing the 1889 version, but mostly it represents substantial cuts to the 1877 version. The first movement is over 3 minutes shorter, with cuts mainly in the development and the coda but leaving the overall structure unchanged. The 1876 version of the adagio is in ABABA form, but the middle A section was cut in 1877, resulting in an ABA form with a long and repetitious B section. In 1889, the B section was reduced to eliminate some of the repetition. The only changes to the scherzo were the elimination of the coda and the addition of a few bars. The finale underwent the greatest amount of change. The 1877 version is in a sort of sonata-rondo form: ABCAXABC-coda, where X is a development section and the coda is based on A and the first theme of the first movement, but the 1889 version shortens X, cuts out the A that follows it (thus resembling the finale of Brahms' First), drops most of the second C, and largely recomposes and shortens the coda. The A theme, a bold statement in the brass, is impressive!