Although the 1887 version of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony is generally regarded as being inferior to the revision that appeared in 1890, the original version nevertheless represents three years of concentrated effort by a composer working at the peak of his creativity. One of the great ‘what ifs’ of musical history is what might have happened had the conductor Hermann Levi, a champion of Bruckner’s music, not been so perplexed by the new work that he felt unable to perform it, causing the composer to put aside the Ninth Symphony in favour of a series of revisions of not only the Eighth Symphony but also nearly all of his major works up to and including the Fourth Symphony. If Levi had appreciated the Eighth, the version performed on this recording might have become the only one known today.

Given the relatively small number of conductors who have performed the 1887 version, recordings of the score are differentiated by a surprisingly wide variety of running times, ranging from the fleet 76 minutes of Eliahu Inbal’s pioneering recording for Teldec to the more leisurely 99 minutes of Kent Nagano’s traversal for Farao Classics. The new recording comes in at 92 minutes, which is longer than most, but is not a disproportionate timing given that the original version of the symphony is some 10 per cent longer than the revised version. Luisi’s interpretation is marked by scrupulous observance of dynamics, a finely balanced orchestral palate and rock-steady tempi. As far as I can tell, this is the first recording of a Bruckner symphony by the Philharmonia Zurich (the orchestra of Zurich Opera), but one would never know it from their idiomatic and cultivated playing. With clear and spacious sound, the result is at least as fine as any other recording of the 1887 score currently available.