Track Listing

1. Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107: Allegro moderato
2. Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107: Adagio: Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam
3. Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107: Scherzo: Nicht schnell, Trio: Langsam
4. Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107: Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #454122 in Music
• Released on: 1996-05-28
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.com
In contrast to previous CD editions, Sony's new transfer boasts greater definition in the treble and bass, with extra bloom in the strings. What's more, the finale no longer spills over to a second disc, enabling the listener to hear Bruno Walter's Bruckner 7th uninterrupted on one CD. The high point is Walter's meditative Adagio, shorn of its traditional cymbal crash. Elsewhere, one misses the thrust, energy, and sense of cumulation other conductors achieve in the outer movements. Be that as it may, Walter communicates his kinder, gentler vision of this music with love, authority, and conviction. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews

Five stars in tribute to the spirit of music
By the time he turned 85 in 1961, the year before he died, Bruno Walter had reached moments of transcendene in his music-making. This Bruckner Seventh contains many of them. Walter could no longer command great stick technique, but that didn't matter. He makes this symphony one long ardent song, and on those terms it is wonderful. All the more so since the fragile conductor took five days between March 11-27 to complete the recording.

Unlike the preceding year's choppy, undernourished Fourth Sym., the Columbia Symphony sounds full here and is recorded in wide-spaced sonics. (I don't know if Columbia used microphone tricks to boost the string sound.) Walter's handling of the moving line is spellbinding, even though he eschews dramatic contrasts of loud and soft. Most of the Adagio, for example, proceeds at mezzo forte. Even so, Walter was a master at melody, and the Seventh is Bruckner's most melodic work. Tempos are not extreme: at 64 min. Walter is four min. faster than Karajan (EMI), four min. slower than Harnoncourt (Teldec). The flowing Adagio is especially well judged.

For anyone collecting late Walter recordings, this Seventh stands at the pinnacle.

Anton Bruckner Symphony 7-Bruno Walter
In Bruno Walters' "Indian Summer" with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, I am so very thankfull that the great conductor recorded Anton Bruckners' magnificent, stirring Seventh Symphony. Bruckners' Seventh could rightly be called "The Symphony of Nature", as to my mind, it recalls the beauty of walking through a forest, or climbing a scenic mountain on a bright summers day. It is no wonder that Walter captures this like no other conductor, as he felt most strongly that a good conductor needs to be one who is in tune with nature and can well appreciate her beauty.
Conductor and work are at one in this Bruckner Seven, demonstrating a mastery of detail co-existing with a thick, dense texture which adheres to the composers' intentions. The crisp, stereo sound is a delight, and satisfies both intellect and spirit in the great way Bruno Walters' Bruckner can. This Seventh is much more to the point than many I have heard, and is wrongly underrated and overlooked by many a Brucknerian. Conductors like Bohm, Klemperer and Jochum could well have learned a great deal had they been influenced by this superior effort. I highly recommend this recording to someone wanting to understand Bruckner-it is accessible without sacrificing depth and complexity.

To many, this performance will be a disappointment.
In 1947 Bruno Walter wrote, "As long as I can lift a baton I shall continue to conduct the work of Mahler and Bruckner. I consider it to be one of my life's tasks to uncover the sources of exultation flowing from their music".

Well, here is the great conductor, a year or so before he was no longer able to lift a baton, uncovering the sources of exultation flowing from Bruckner's E Major Symphony. Music lovers will be familiar with the miracles of performance, recording and remastering that derive from Bruno Walter's retirement years in California. To many, this Bruckner recording will therefore be a disappointment. Where there ought to be tension, there is listlessness. Where there should be fervour, there is passivity. Listen to the entry of the strings, for example, half a minute into the Adagio movement. What can seem so emotion charged and heart wrenching when other conductors are in charge, especially in live performance, passes here almost for nothing.

I have collected almost every performance Bruno Walter prepared for recording, but I suggest that music lovers who want a strongly recommended Bruckner Seventh look elsewhere.