Bruckner: Symphony No. 5

Sinopoli's Bruckner No. 5 has all the rhetorical grandeur necessary for an outstanding performance of this composer's music, but it also has a degree of detail rarely encountered. It's as if the score has been exactly translated into sound, with inner figures reaching the ear without exaggeration. The Dresden orchestra's playing is all one could ask for: weighty and airy at the same time, breathtaking accuracy and warmth from the strings, brass that cuts through the climaxes with weight and power, and wind playing of consummate sensitivity, helped in no small measure by the unique tonal quality of the oboe and flutes, rounder and warmer than we're used to from American orchestras. The engineering has an analytical, somewhat dry sound, whose dynamic extremes make it hard to find the right volume setting. All in all, one of the most interesting Bruckner Fives on the market. --Dan Davis