Hans Knappertsbusch - Bruckner: Symphony No. 3 (2017) [SACD]

Bruckner's Third Symphony has been characterised as 'difficult', and is regarded by some as his artistic breakthrough. According to Rudolf Kloiber, this symphony "opens the sequence of Bruckner's masterpieces, in which his creativity meets monumental ability of symphonic construction." The work is notorious as the most-revised of Bruckner's symphonies, and there exist no fewer than six versions, with three of them, the 1873 original version, the 1877-78 version, and the composer's last thoughts of 1889, being widely performed today. The 1890 Rättig edition was only used by conductors like Hans Knappertsbusch and Carl Schuricht when conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. This first published version remains controversial because it hasn't been ascertained how much it reflected Bruckner's last wishes, and how much it was influenced by Josef Schalk, his student and administrator of his library of music scores.