Here is another instalment in what is emerging as a magisterial traversal of Bruckner’s symphonic canon by Andris Nelsons and his Leipzig Gewandhaus. Nelsons uses Nowak’s 1953 edition of the score as first performed (Bruckner’s 1878-1880 revision of his first version, if that means anything…).

Some of the tuttis and climaxes in the first movement are like the controlled cataracts Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic achieved in the 1970s (I can offer no greater praise!) without ever verging on coarseness. The opening, always a challenge, is magical, with a magnificent horn call and mists suddenly dissipating as this orchestral juggernaut launches into the Allegro. At 70 minutes, tempi are inevitably slow, but don’t often seem so, except, perhaps, in the Andante, where the mood is almost mystical, like a torch-lit procession winding its way through a darkened landscape.

Overall, however, the music’s pulse – always...