Gunter Wand's Cologne performances of six of the Schubert symphonies have hitherto been available separately; now they come as a boxed set with Nos. 4 and 8 new to the UK. The chief difference from Marriner's Philips box is five LPs against seven. Wand gives us eight symphonies and the Rosamunde incidental music, whereas Marriner includes Brian Newbould's 'realizations of Nos. 7 and 10, his 'completion' of No. 8 and some symphonic fragments. All you ever wanted to know about Schubert the symphonist, in other words.
If you wish to pinpoint what makes great conducting, there is a useful example in Wand's Unfinished. It comes at the start of the coda of the first movement, from bar 324, when the strings' descending pizzicato begins and the sustained pianissimo chord on wind and brass is like a spectre from some haunted moment of past anguish. Instead of a lovely passage in a popular romantic symphony, Wand shows the personal despair in the music. The whole performance is illuminated by insights of this kind. He includes the exposition repeat in the first movement (as does Marriner) and elevates the work to the loftiest realm of tragedy. The orchestra play beautifully and obviously understand their longtime conductor's every whim.
No less wonderful is the performance of the Great C major, one of the finest on record. The two horns' playing of the opening phrase, its dynamic perfectly judged, proclaims that something more remarkable than usual is to follow, and so it does. Tempos are ideal, I think, and the balance between musical architecture and emotional flow is firmly and skilfully held. The finale has a daemonic energy; and for sheer loveliness of playing the passage for horns and strings in the slow movement (from bar 147) takes some beating. Wand does not make the exposition repeat in the first movement in this symphony, whereas Marriner does, but compared with Wand's, Marriner's seems to me a superficial interpretation, the andante introduction too stolid, the allegro ma non troppo ignoring the last three words and speeding along on well-oiled wheels.
Marriner is excellent in the earlier symphonies, where the playing is spick and span, but even here (with one exception) I prefer Wand overall because, without over-emphasis, he gives plenty of scope to the many pointers to the later, greater Schuber. This is particularly noticeable in the Fourth and Sixth Symphonies, still too rarely played in our concert halls. Can it really be true that they are bad box office? Or are many conductors just too lazy to expend the kind of care that Wand and Marriner lavish on the music here? Those who heard Beecham's account of No. 6 (EMI mono ENC108, 9/61—nla) will always have a special place in their affections for it, but both these performances are good and the recording in both cases excellent. My exception mentioned above is No. 5, where Marriner's approach has more grace and the Academy players are at the top of their form. The surfaces on the Wand LPs are virtually silent—I could have sworn I was listening to CDs.'