BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7 in E Major – London Symphony Orchestra/ Sir Simon Rattle – LSO SACD LS0087 (7/24/23) (63:33) [Distr. By PIAS] ****:
In this live, recorded performance from 18 September and 1 December 2022, Sir Simon Rattle delivers the world premiere of the 1881-1884 version of the Bruckner Symphony No. 7, in the Anton Bruckner Urtext Gesamtausgabe (original text complete edition) by Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs. The edition inserts four Wagner tubas in the second and last movements, with the addition of the cymbal clash in the Adagio, along with a triangle and timpani. The acoustic of the Barbican Hall, London proves astonishingly vibrant, especially in the opening cello line and the appearance of the LSO brass. The etiology of this symphony includes two tragic events: the terrible fire at the Vienna Ringtheater on 8 December 1881 and the death of Richard Wagner on 13 February 1883. Much of the dark color of movements one and two, made abundantly palpable in Rattle’s reading, may be attributed to Bruckner’s epic sense of mortality imbibed from these occurrences.
Simon Rattle decides to vary Bruckner’s tempos according to his own lights, within the confines of the new performing edition. The periodic structure of the first movement Allegro moderato proceeds fluently, always with a sense of forward motion in an evolving arc made of martial and chorale motifs. The infusion of Austrian dance rhythms and bucolic evocations at key episodes adds to the mesmerizing color of the whole. The last page reverberates with a sensational rendering by LSO strings and brass.
The funereal mood of the C# Minor Adagio, in memoriam Richard Wagner, conveys a somber valediction of nobly, lyrical character. Even here, amidst the glorification of the fallen operatic master, Bruckner invokes the long melodic line attributable to Bach, and further back in time, Palestrina. The flute part emerges in the midst of the throbbing melodic contour as a reminder of Nature’s bounty even in moments of personal anguish. The periods of this movement flow seamlessly, marked by careful attention to dynamics, especially in diminuendos. The music gains incremental momentum by way of meditations, often above active, moody gestures in the lower strings, retreating momentarily but eventually rising to a fervent climax in a multi-colored C Major.
Anton Bruckner
The third movement, Scherzo, with its heavy rhythm, peasant dance over ostinato strings, may be Bruckner’s answer to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries or an enactment of the apocalyptic flames that consumed the Ringtheater, taking 386 lives. Bruckner expressed the idea of a morning cockerel’s waking the new day. The LSO first trumpet makes his presence known, The Trio in F Major emerges in waltz sensibility, gesangvoll (songful), as intended. With the da capo, the intimations of mortality intrude once more, even in a mirthful pose, the music’s bustling through a series of fine, aural counterpoints among the LSO woodwinds and horns.
For his Finale: Bewegt: doch nicht schnell Bruckner fuses structural techniques borrowed from both Haydn and Schubert. The dotted, violin motif plays against the chorale that the strings also provide. Rattle projects a vibrant, fertile optimism in his delivery, the brass (the Wagner tubas) lushly pompous in their assertions. The pageant begins to hint at a Medieval festival moment. The development section mixes the impulses, colored by bucolic energies, infiltrated by the timpani. Bruckner’s adventurous chromaticism becomes playful, taking up the grandiose brass ceremony to a high point, then abandoning the texture for the string and woodwind consolations on a more diurnal plane. The music just prior to the recapitulation foreshortens the themes’ entries, choosing a textural stretto, layering of themes, before the initial dotted rhythm appears with its chorale brethren. Long breaths mark Rattle’s progression to the splendid, victorious E Major apotheosis that crowns this momento mori to Bruckner’s idol, Richard Wagner.
—Gary Lemco
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