* BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E Major (Ed. Leopold Nowak) – Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi – Sony/BMG Red Seal multichannel SACD 88697389972, 67:27 *****:
Sony U.S. may have given up on the SACD format because it failed to sell enough for their bean-counters, but occasionally their European offices insist that the policy of distributing SACD titles around the world as SACDs but in the U.S. as only standard CDs be abandoned, and we hi-res collectors can celebrate. This is the initial release in a proposed Bruckner symphony series, and with this terrific disc it looks like a winning series is coming up for all Bruckner fans.
I had thought Bruckner’s Fourth was the starter symphony for newbie Bruckner listeners, but it is looking like the Seventh is taking over. It shares with the Fourth an optimistic radiant character that is appealing to first-time audiences, and is also full of romantic-period tonal effects. Known sometimes as the "Lyric" Symphony, it no longer actually quotes passages by Bruckner’s hero (as does the Wagner Symphony), but it still reveals a strong influence of the more spectacular composer. The tragic tone of the second movement Adagio was composed under the direct influence of the death of Wagner. Here’s an odd connection: Adolf Hitler loved the Bruckner Seventh and compared it favorably to Beethoven’s Ninth.
Järvi captures the enormous power of the Seventh, boldly emphasizing its impressive structural dimensions, but paying close attention to the little details which prevent Bruckner’s repetitive passages from being heard as the beginnings of minimalism. This symphony’s reception by the public at the time was the first real acclaim for Bruckner as a great symphonic composer. One critic even said the Adagio alone “would suffice to place the composer among his most important, immortal colleagues.”
While the tonal style may be thoroughly romantic, Bruckner’s characteristic use of Baroque instrumentation similar to organ compositions gives all his symphonies a unique and distinctive flavor. The first movement is almost the same length as the heartfelt Adagio. The short Scherzo is in a three-part lieder form which takes a turn toward the demonic element. The Finale has a theme that clearly reflects on the opening movement, but transformed into energetic activity, and work’s coda actually quotes the opening movement. The great clarity and spread of the 5.0 multichannel hi-res sound makes all of Bruckner’s subtleties audible and also conveys the tremendous orchestral surges of sound that overcome the listener. It is the same as with the equally complex and spatial (but so different!) symphonies of Mahler.
There’s something about German radio orchestras doing Bruckner which has become a long tradition. Gunther Wand’s series with the NDR Orchestra has been my personal Bruckner standard for years, and this first entry seems to show Järvi following closely in the Wand tradition, and with better sound than the expensive Japanese SACDs (the Wand/Bruckner series was released only as Red Seal CDs in the U.S.).
— John Sunier
A review of the standard CD version, by Gary Lemco =
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E Major – Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Jarvi – RCA Red Seal 88697389972, 67:27 ****:
Paavo Jarvi comes to the 1883 Bruckner Seventh Symphony (rec. 22-24 November 2006) by way of the Leopold Nowak edition; but more to the point, he extends the tradition of the original founder of the Frankfurt ensemble, Hans Rosbaud, by his willingness to approach the E Major as a constant work-in-progress whose thematic periods can be approached in a variety of organically wrought means. Jarvi’s streamlined style in the first movement–its emphasis on the lyric basis of the three thematic groups in hymnal syntax and Wagnerian harmony–resembles the kind of bright radiance that Gunter Wand achieved without the burden of piety that weighs down much of Celibidache’s Bruckner legacy.
Even given Jarvi’s basic propulsion in the rhythmic surface, the tendency of the orchestra to build upon an organ diapason creates an internal tension between monumentality and bucolic transparency of texture. The colors in Jarvi’s orchestra ring with extremely etched contours, the flutes moving into the low strings with a deliberate shading of the Old Masters, say Rembrandt. The sonic mix–courtesy of Ruediger Orth–captures the alternately vehement and serene ecstasies of this mighty score, whose first movement certainly echoes motives from Valhalla. The leisure of the transition to the recapitulation, on the other hand, shimmers with the kind of internal, fluid patience that we ascribe to the noble Furtwaengler readings of this score. The coda ushers in that Elysian sweep and grandeur that utters “Himmel hoch!” in every bar.
The Adagio, of course, does pay direct homage to the memory of Richard Wagner, a warmly radiant valedictory which culminates at bar 177 and whose inflamed stretti will eventually recede into an ethereal pianissimo. Jarvi manages to maintain a taut pulsation within the vast or vaulted architecture of this expansive movement, though for me the weight of the first two movements tends to make even the most lyric outpouring top-heavy. Still, we seem to move through a number of Wagnerian labyrinths, and declamations from Daland or Kundry seem immanent. The Valkyries ride in their idiosyncratic march-waltz in the Scherzo, the fourths and fifths chirping or fox-hunting, as is their wont. The passion swells in mock demonic fury, only to relent in Schubertian hues for the trio section. The da capo features some splendid trumpet work in syncopation. The Finale–in the manner of ouroboros–recycles materials in the first movement in an energetic, concise manner. Collaboration between principal flute, strings, and French horns floats seamlessly toward the ultimate peroration in which Wagner’s mortality and his epic posterity converge. Has the whole progress been a Rhine Journey? A vast and rewarding enterprise from first to last, this Jarvi Seventh.
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