The earliest of Bruckner’s three symphonies in D minor, No 0 or Die Nullte was written shortly after the composer’s move from Linz to Vienna in 1868 at the age of 44. The reasons for his decision to withdraw the symphony from his numbered canon a few years later are not documented, but it’s a work that’s at least as profound and rewarding as the First Symphony of 1865 66 and we are fortunate that Bruckner ultimately chose to leave it for posterity, albeit annotating the score with the words ungiltig (‘invalid’) and annulirt (‘annulled’) when sorting through his manuscripts in his final years.

Poschner’s recording is the third instalment in his project to record the symphonies in all their versions for the bicentenary of the composer’s birth in 2024. Recording quality and playing are both first-class, the woodwinds and brass especially eloquent in quieter passages. The phrasing and sonority of the violins in the sublime introduction to the finale is another highlight. Poschner’s fast tempo for the Scherzo is highly effective, although unusually he repeats both sections of the movement before the Trio. These are not marked in either the Wöss or the Nowak editions of the score and do not feature in any of the other 15 or so recordings of the symphony I’ve heard. No mention of it is made in Capriccio’s otherwise commendably detailed booklet note.

Among alternative recordings, Haitink’s version from 1966 remains a strong recommendation, providing a degree of additional expressive weight over Poschner’s performance in the outer movements. I have also increasingly come to admire the interpretation by Marcus Bosch with the Aachen Symphony Orchestra, which fits an equally impressive account of the F minor Study Symphony (No 00) on a single CD. The Capriccio recording features only the D minor Symphony.