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[Knappertsbusch's] earthy interpretations of Bruckner are very fine, as in the delirious Eighth Symphony on Music & Arts. The conductor's obvious enthusiasm elicits extraordinary playing from the Berlin Philharmonic. American Record Guide: May/June 1996: David Radcliffe

"Knappertsbusch was known above all as a Wagnerian," wrote John Rockwell in The New York Times. "His expansive tempos and gruff mysticism made him especially well suited for late Wagnerian, quasi-Brucknerian scores like Parsifal. With Bruckner, Knappertsbusch's gifts seemed if anything even more apt. Like Bruckner, he had a certain naiveté of character. His performances offered an impatient roughness of outer texture — he was famed for his lack of enthusiasm for rehearsals. But that roughness matches Bruckner's own peasant bluntness. And Knappertsbusch's way with Brucknerian rubato — varying the pulse of the music without undermining Bruckner's stolid grandeur — seems to capture the essence of the music time after time, mixing serenity with thrilling urgency."

"KNA" CONDUCTS BRUCKNER'S 8TH. BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 8 in c (1892 ed.), BPO, cond. Hans Knappertsbusch (7/8 Jan. 1951).