Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic." Georg Tintner, Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Naxos 8.554128.

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic." Georg Tintner, Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Naxos 8.554128.

Georg Tintner's Bruckner symphony cycle shows great promise if this new recording of the Fourth Symphony is any indication. The Fourth is probably Bruckner's most accessible work, and his most recorded. However, it is for this latter reason that perhaps Tintner failed to impress me as much as he might have. It was only a few weeks before that I had listened to Gunter Wand's new recording with the Berlin Philharmonic (RCA), and, frankly, the comparison did not favor Maestro Tintner.

Tintner's strengths lie in the opening moments of the first movement, fashioned carefully, lovingly, and longingly, and the entire Finale, which builds up a requisite tension and dynamic. In between, things are more mundane. A general feeling of lassitude may be in part due to Tintner's unusually slow tempos, or it may be due to Naxos's unusually warm, mid-bassy sound. But even a quick listen to Wand's disc reveals his more forceful way with the music, his greater spontaneity, his stronger contrasts, his more urgent pushing upward of the work's themes. OK, I confess that the Berlin Philharmonic had something to do with it, too. They are still an incomparable group of musicians, even long after Karajan. Instant A-B analysis shows the Scottish players to be quite good but no match for their German counterparts in sonority, richness, or uniformity of attack.

Finally, there is cost to consider. The late Georg Tintner was an old hand (indeed, a very old hand, born in 1917) at this music and for a bargain price he almost carries the day. The RCA disc will cost you three times as much. And there remain Klemperer (EMI) and Bohm (Decca) at mid price to consider and Jochum (DG) at a bargain price similar to Tintner's. Decisions, decisions. The great thing is that none of them is a wrong decision.