Horenstein's Mahler and Bruckner performances were so legendary that young English listeners spent the night outside the concert hall in sleeping bags waiting to hear him.

Great Bruckner performances can come in several guises, but for all its many felicities, Mr. Tennstedt's account was not great.

For another thing, the Bruckner performance turned out to be the best effort I have heard the Philharmonic give under Mr. Masur.

"We have spoken about the difficulties of making live recordings," Mr. Masur said, referring to difficulties with coughing in the audience during the Bruckner performances.

Bruckner performances have numbered among the highlights of Kurt Masur's tenure as the orchestra's music director, and here Mr. Masur leads the orchestra in the composer's great unfinished Ninth Symphony.

Meanwhile Anton Bruckner pupil Ferdinand Löwe established an enduring tradition of Bruckner performance which continues to this day.

This came at the price of the granitic structural clarity that drives the best Bruckner performances, and of rhythmic alacrity in the lighter moments.

The Bruckner performance is especially impressive, since Mr. Botstein has not only to create an interpretation but also to counter the expectations, orchestra's as well as listeners', raised by familiarity with the other versions.

In the Bruckner Ninth Symphony after the intermission, the playing was better, but still not up to the level of Karajan's own magisterial Bruckner performances.