Anton Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 6, 8 & 9

The Munich Philharmonic was one of two orchestra - the other being the Berlin Philharmonic - which Gunter Wand regularly conducted, though not bound by contract, until shortly before his death. The Abendzeitung characterized him then as an "avant-gardist of modern music", though he was "not a hothead" but more "a professor of philosophy than of music - clever, nervous, sensitive" and had remained "modestly reserved in spite of his international successes all over the continent". The orchestra and the Munich audience were loyal to him over four and a half decades, and even in his last years, when he was nearing the age of ninety and travelling had become a great strain for him, he repeatedly returned to conduct in Munich. At his final concert in the city in the autumn of 2001, he conducted Schubert's Fifth and Bruckner's Fourth before an audience that was both filled with enthusiasm and deeply moved.