Sergiu Celibidache Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 180g 2LP

Sergiu Celibidache was without question one of the most important and original conductors in recent memory. He was a perfectionist who disliked what he perceived to be the synthetic sounds created in the modern recording studio, preferring the immediacy of the concert platform and the interaction with a live audience. This Bruckner recording celebrates the extraordinary legacy of his collaboration with the Münchner Philharmoniker, for which he was Musical Director from 1979 until his death in 1996.

One of the greatest Bruckner performances I have ever heard - a truly towering act of the re-creative imagination... [This performance] is centred in string playing of astonishing depth, eloquence and homogeneity. As with Giulini, it is the viola and cello sections which seem to harbour the very soul of the music. The viola cantilenas in the slow movement...are things of rare beauty.