After budget box appearances on EMI and Musical Heritage Society, this outstanding Bruckner cycle hopefully has now found a permanent home on Brilliant Classics at super-budget price. Better still, you also get a fine performance of Symphony No. “0” with Skrowaczewski, making a more complete package than ever before. Compared with Eugen Jochum’s earlier set on DG, only Symphonies Nos. 4 and 8 might be found slightly wanting, but this minor reservation can’t significantly diminish the magnificence of the whole. There are performances here that never have been surpassed, including the rugged First, a particularly grand Fifth, an absolutely luminous Seventh (the best Adagio ever?), and a Ninth unrivalled in its savagery and excitement. The playing of the Staatskapelle Dresden routinely surpasses that of its German colleagues, including Berlin, and the refurbished sonics are consistent with previous issues–a touch dated, perhaps, but perfectly acceptable. A monument in discographic history, no doubt about it.
