Back in the days when Bruckner Fifths weren’t exactly thick on the field, this performance was a serious contender; it’s less of one now. Not that there’s anything particularly wrong with it. Maazel gets his usual respectable results from the Vienna Philharmonic, which certainly knows the music as well as anyone. The performance is notably unaffected, and the Adagio goes particularly well, with some really beautiful string playing from the orchestra. Maazel also offers a lively account of the scherzo, but the finale (as so often happens) disappoints somewhat, particularly at the end where the brass simply don’t have the chops to blaze as they must, and the timpani don’t give the necessary bottom to the sound. I also think it’s a mistake to slow down for the final choral as Maazel does: it’s more important to maintain the music’s impetus than it is to project a grandeur that’s basically built into the whole architectural conception of the movement. Only Jochum managed to pull this tactic off with complete success, but then he used a double brass section for just that purpose. The sonics are typical Decca in Vienna: warm, but a touch shallow and a bit dated by today’s standards. Bruckner fans already know if they want this, and at the price, you could do much worse.
