Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Wiener Philharmoniker - Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B flat WAB 105 (2004) [SACD]

Coming in somewhere between Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 - Jaap van Zweden and Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 - Wand, this shows Harnoncourt to be working his way towards a convincing approach to Bruckner. Most details are well thought through, without detracting from the overall structure of this gargantuan work. A serious problem though is the reading of the slow movement - by no means can it be called "Sehr langsam", it doesn't really about qualify as an Adagio; when one feels that the arco string theme feels like a Länder, it is far too fast. This handicap aside, the rest is well presented by Harnoncourt and the Viennese players respond with considerable warmth. The second (non-SACD) disc will be of great interest to German speakers, where we are presented with extensive rehearsal excerpts of the rehearsals immediately preceding the set of concerts from which the SACD is derived - no texts or translations are provided however.
The sound is very faithful to that of the Wiener Philharmoniker when playing in the Musikverein. The relatively high level of resonance is like that in real life - a reflection perhaps that, good though it is, the hall really was designed for music from an era before Bruckner!