I am familiar with a good number of Bernstein recordings, albeit I favor other conductors over him in most of the repertoire, including the Mahler he was so famous for.
This Bruckner is absolutely amazing and brings to surface degrees of complexity, humaneness and depth in the music which I could hardly think possible.
The clarity of the voicing and phrasing is staggering, the psychological identification with the smallest crevices of the music even more so.
Mahler doesn't need from the conductor hysteria on top of hysteria - it needs clarity, elegance, and cohesion. Perhaps that's why I favor Walter, Kubelik and others over Bernstein, in Mahler.
On the other hand, Bruckner sounds too often, from the "specialists," uniformly abstract, mystical as in distant, rather than in the intensity of the experience. While a Wilhelm Furtwaengler in 1944 or an Otto Klemperer in 1933 (if memory serves) left extremely intense and sincere (both live) performances, the flawed recording process did not help the clarity.
Not with Bernstein. Nothing is missing here. This is to my ears the clearest, most eloquent, most personal way to conduct this symphony.
An altogether unforgettable experience. Bruckner's greatest work in its greatest interpretation.
P.S. When you get a chance also explore this symphony in a performance left by another great "Bruckner outsider": Mravinsky, live 1980.
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