Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble & Trevor Pinnock - Bruckner: Symphonie No. 2 - The Irish Times

Schoenberg's idealistic Society for the Private Performance of Music (members only, no applause or expression or displeasure, no critics) was shortlived (1918-21), undone by hyperinflation that would exceed 2,500 per cent in Austria in 1922. The society didn't shirk from arranging the largest of works for the available forces, and London's Royal Academy of Music commissioned Anthony Payne to adopt the society's spirit and adapt Bruckner's Second Symphony for an ensemble of 20 players, rather larger than the society's norm. The effect is revealing but peculiar. This is Bruckner as you've probably never heard him before.