Somm Recordings has released the first tranche of Bruckner from the Archives, a major new, six-double-CD series celebrating the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth in 1824.

Conceived and designed by SOMM Executive Producer and acclaimed Audio Restoration Engineer Lani Spahr, with support from the Bruckner Society of America, the series features rare archival recordings of Bruckner’s 11 symphonies and selected other important works, many appearing for the first time in any form. They have been curated from 11,000 archival Bruckner recordings. 

Volume 1, CD 1 contains the so-called ‘Study Symphony’ with the Vienna Symphony under Kurt Wöss (who seems a much better conductor here than during his somewhat ill-fated tenure as the Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony in the 1950s). You’d probably have to listen for a while to detect musical straws in the wind of more mature Bruckner, but the performance is both committed and convincing. 

The March in D and the Three Pieces for Orchestra (both with Hans Weisbach and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra) are relatively unadventurous, but the treatment of Psalm 112...