Manfred Honeck’s interpretation of the three-movement version of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony is one of the most distinctive to have appeared for some years. ‘It is in the Ninth that Bruckner invites us into the presence of God’, Honeck writes in the booklet note, and goes on to explain his thoughts about the symphony in an essay extending nearly 18 pages. The beginning of the first movement, he tells us, ‘can be seen as a death march without accompaniment’, while the Adagio, he suggests, is modelled on the Agnus Dei from the traditional Latin Mass. The essay (in English only) includes over 50 references to bar numbers and associated timings in the recording where Honeck wishes to explain some point of detail or other. Altogether, it’s one of the most detailed booklet notes I’ve ever seen. As such, it’s a pity that no one picked up the erroneous year given for Bruckner’s birth.

Honeck’s management of tempo relations is for the most part judicious and subtle. Not for him the feverish accelerandos in climactic passages favoured by the likes of Jochum and Venzago. By contrast, his approach to balance and dynamics is highly individual. The orchestral sound is dark-hued and saturated, aided by a recording that favours the low bass. Double bass pizzicatos are pronounced and resonant, and timpani rolls sound positively volcanic. The trumpets from bar 7 in the first movement have a martial quality, and on a number of occasions Honeck adds an additional crescendo towards the end of extended fff passages. Some of these performance interventions are explained in the booklet note, but others are not. For example, why do the violins at the start of the Adagio slowly swell from piano when the score indicates forte? Perhaps Honeck felt the opening should emulate that of Wagner’s Parsifal, but I found this and some of the other interpretative idiosyncrasies more distracting than inspired.

Considered as a whole, this new version is a compelling account of the symphony with considerable depth of feeling and intimations of the beyond. The closing pages of the symphony are especially sublime. It might not reach the lofty heights achieved by Giulini or Barenboim but it’s a definitely a recording to hear.