This issue of the metronome marks for the first movement of Bruckner 6 has been discussed in some detail in none other than MusicWeb itself, http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Jan/Bruckner_sy6_article_CH.pdf, both as an issue in itself and for its bearing on a few selected performances.
While I would refer readers to this article for a fuller discussion, there are a few points I would reiterate here:
1. The metronome marks in the MS score (downloadable from IMSLP) are clearly in a different hand from the rest. Scholars seem to agree that they were added posthumously by Cyrill Hinais, who claimed Bruckner's authority for them.
2. At the time Hinais added these markings, this movement had not yet been performed, so Hinais himself (or Bruckner himself), faced with the practical facts of life, may have had to recognize that the opening tempo was optimistically fast, though it may stand as a warning not to take it too slow.
3. Hinais' marking for the slower second theme, which is not contradicted by any accelerando or "a tempo" marking until the first theme reappears in the middle of the movement, and then at the end, produces the effect that the triplet crotchets (fourth notes) underlying this new tempo go at about the same speed as the previous "normal" crotchets. My contention is that, whatever speed you start at, you should respect this relationship when the change of tempo arrives. Keilberth and Horenstein signally do this. No doubt they are not alone, my article was not intended as a complete guide to recordings of the symphony. One famous performance that signally does not is Klemperer's. I haven't investigated the Rattle.
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