Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

Anton Bruckner (Composer), Bruno Walter (Conductor), Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Columbia Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Bruno Walter
• Composer: Anton Bruckner
• Audio CD (May 28, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002A88
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,229 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A revelatory performance!, March 15, 2010

By 

Scriabinmahler (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (Audio CD)

If you are after a heart-wrenching, religiously fanatic, bombastic Bruckner 7th, look else where. But this revelatory account by Bruno Walter is by no means a disappointment. On the contrary, this is one of the richest performances of 7th available on CD and certainly one of Walter's great achievements as a conductor.

He adopts relatively slow tempo throughout and that gave me the impression that it lacks urgency and intensity, however, after a few times of listing, I realised the conductor's intention, then I've been utterly captivated by the conductor's vison, the sublime tenderness of the slow movement, the nobly controlled climaxes. The whole symphony glows with human warmth. There are more powerful performances by other conductors, but few of them succeeds to reveal the inner beauty of the symphony like Walter does in this performance. The early stereo sound is incredibly sumptuous.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars in tribute to the spirit of music, December 17, 2005

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (Audio CD)

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.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anton Bruckner Symphony 7-Bruno Walter, June 22, 2002

By 

Doug Rea (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (Audio CD)

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.