I heard Bruckner's Fourth today by Celibidache and Munchner Philharmonische . It has taken me 53 years to arrive at THE performance of this symphony. I had to stand up and take notice by the tempi and realised that the dialogue between Bruckner and God could be interpreted and understood. What an angelic revelation.
Magnificent.
Sergiu Celibidache
Zubin Mehta
Jesus Lopez Cobos
Otto Klemperer

These are the four great recordings of this work and in that order.

What about Gunter Wand?

Otto Klemperer's was the first recording I ever heard of this piece. I loved it until the finale, which I hated because I felt it didn't make any sort of point. So then, after reading all these crazy reviews about other people in the same situation as mine who turned to Celibidache's and had a massive epiphany in the last movement, I decided to go for it... not only did I have the same experience in the finale, but in the rest of the symphony as well. That is one tremendous CD.

__________________
"Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n
wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu!
Was du geschlagen
zu Gott wird es dich tragen!"
-Gustav Mahler

By the way, the Celibidache recording of this symphony with the Münchner Philharmoniker is available at Last.fm:

http://www.last.fm/music/Sergi%25C3%...ASymphony+No.4

It's also part of the Celibidache tag radio which the users have built there, but you can hear a lot of other albums there as well, also historic ones from the '50s:

http://www.last.fm/tag/celibidache

I'm listening to it for several hours now, here's my playlist:

http://www.last.fm/user/hjbardenhagen/tracks

Have not heard Gunter Wand do the Romantic. So I cannot say. His Eighth is magnificent.

I have heard Günter Wand conducting the Radio Symphony Orchestra live in Hamburg with Bruckner's No. 4 and several times on the local radio station NDR, so I can safely say that it's also a very good choice.

I haven't explored this symphony at any great length, but I really enjoy it. I have only one recording, that being from Wand with the Berliner Philharmoniker. I selected that one after reading some glowing reviews, and it did not disappoint. However, I have read that, while his conducting of other composers is variable, Celibidache was a master with Bruckner. According to the reviews I read, it suggested that Bruckner's symphonies were very much amenable to the slower tempi that Celibidache tended to favor. I have been meaning to sample some of his Bruckner recordings. I also have Klemperer's recording of the 6th, Wand's recording of the 8th (again with Berlin), and Walter's recording of the 9th. I do tend to favor the 4th above them all, but have not devoted as much time to Bruckner as, say, Beethoven or Mahler. Perhaps I need to change that.

I have also read good things about Bohm's recording of the 4th with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Has anybody heard that one? I am a big fan of Bohm when it comes to Mozart, but haven't ventured much beyond that.

I had it once. Some will no doubt be provoked, when I say that
I did not find it particularly exciting. It is not very agitated
if compared to Barenboim on teldec (one of the best in Barenboim´s
uneven cycle), Konwitschny´s (probably not available on CD, though),
Abendroth´s (on berliner classics, with poorer sound), Wand´s, or
Celi´s on DG. Neither, it is as massively majestic as Karajan on EMI.
Bøhm´s is more like Klemperer´s on emi, which I find somewhat over-
rated as well. But opinions differ in this matter, since people are looking
for different qualities ...

I was surprised when searching Amazon.de for Wand yesterday that he has recorded Bruckner's symphonies with so many orchestras. Besides the Berliner he also conducted the Münchner Philharmoniker (Celibidache's orchestra until his death) and several Radio Symphony Orchestras in Germany: Stuttgart, Cologne and of course Hamburg. The latter are the ones I know fairly well, and it seems they are not available on CD anymore, but as DVDs now, e.g. with one live recording of No. 4 at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in the Lübecker Dom, a big church with a long decay time, so he had to adapt to the acoustics.

Recently I heard Kurt Masur and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig with Brucker's No. 4 on Last.fm, and I liked his interpretation, too, quite similar to Wand's in my opinion:

http://www.last.fm/music/Kurt+Masur/...%3A+Symphony+4

And here's the search result on Last.fm for all available albums of No. 4, the ones with a play button have playable tracks:

http://www.last.fm/search?q=bruckner+4&type=album

Excuse me....where's Karajan?

Istvan Kertesz also made a good recording...

You should also try the original version of this symphony, which has been recorded a few times
and is so different from the familiar one we hear as to be virtually a different work altogether.
The third movement is completely different and not the famous"hunting" scherzo.
It's fascinating to hear. I have the excellent Teldec recording with Eliahu Inbal and the Frankfurt Radio symphony, part of his Bruckner cycle using only the original versions of the symphonies.
You'll hardly recognize the work.

I read alot of reviews and they all point to Bohm's version. I listened to it and wasn't inspired. The only other version I heard was Karajan's in the 70s, which I thought was alot better than Bohm's in many passages (which has alot to do with the quality of the Berliner Philharmonic during the time) but just wasn't consistently good thoroughout the whole thing.

I have had the Bohm on CD for 25 years or so, and found it quite OK, but...
I too have only just got around to hearing the EMI/Munich/Celibidache/1988 performance recently.
A staggering masterpiece; the finale works as never before.
THis is THE Bruckner 4.
cheers,
G