Bruckner - Symphony no.7
£13.25
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Label: Myrios
Cat No: MYR030
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 11th February 2022
Contents
Artists
Gurzenich-Orchester KolnConductor
Francois-Xavier RothWorks
Symphony no.7 in E major (ed. Nowak)Artists
Gurzenich-Orchester KolnConductor
Francois-Xavier RothAbout
Loss, death, and redemption: Anton Bruckner went through a whirlwind of emotions during the two years in which he wrote the Seventh Symphony. The worst theatre fire in history left hundreds dead practically next door to his Vienna apartment; Bruckner would have been one of the victims, had he not decided at the last minute to stay at home instead of going to the opera. He still feared that the flames might engulf his apartment and his manuscripts. As he wrote shortly thereafter to a friend: “The inexpressible misery of so many souls makes the blood run cold!”
In the Seventh Symphony, Bruckner incorporated all those unsettling impressions, as well as the mourning over the death of Richard Wagner, his admired “ideal”. The work, however, is by no means somber; its four movements trace an unswerving path toward redemption. The symphony’s premiere in 1884 in Leipzig was a resounding success and catapulted Bruckner for many years to the forefront of the European music scene.
Leading up to the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth in 2024, François-Xavier Roth and the Gürzenich Orchestra will release the Austrian composer’s complete symphonies in new recordings: the cycle is inaugurated on this album with the Seventh Symphony. François-Xavier Roth’s approach to Bruckner is lean and light-footed; the sonority remains transparent at all times. He calls Bruckner “a trailblazer of Modernism”. Roth creates an unforgettable musical experience with the Gürzenich Orchestra, which has been closely associated with Bruckner’s symphonic output for well over a century. These recordings of acclaimed live concerts from the Cologne Philharmonie are all processed in audiophile high-resolution DXD technique.
In the Seventh Symphony, Bruckner incorporated all those unsettling impressions, as well as the mourning over the death of Richard Wagner, his admired “ideal”. The work, however, is by no means somber; its four movements trace an unswerving path toward redemption. The symphony’s premiere in 1884 in Leipzig was a resounding success and catapulted Bruckner for many years to the forefront of the European music scene.
Leading up to the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth in 2024, François-Xavier Roth and the Gürzenich Orchestra will release the Austrian composer’s complete symphonies in new recordings: the cycle is inaugurated on this album with the Seventh Symphony. François-Xavier Roth’s approach to Bruckner is lean and light-footed; the sonority remains transparent at all times. He calls Bruckner “a trailblazer of Modernism”. Roth creates an unforgettable musical experience with the Gürzenich Orchestra, which has been closely associated with Bruckner’s symphonic output for well over a century. These recordings of acclaimed live concerts from the Cologne Philharmonie are all processed in audiophile high-resolution DXD technique.
Sound/Video
Paused
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11. Allegro moderato
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22. Adagio. Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam
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33. Scherzo. Sehr schnell
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44. Finale. Bewegt, doch nicht schnell
Europadisc Review
The première of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony, at the end of 1884 in Leipzig under the baton of the young Artur Nikisch, was the first unalloyed success of Anton Bruckner’s symphonic career. It must have been all the more gratifying for the 59-year-old composer, in that it was away from the Austrian capital which had proved so unappreciative of his creative gifts; no-one could claim that this was a mere local or provincial triumph. Ever since, it has remained a perennial favourite among audiences, above all for its combination of Brucknerian elementalism with a glowingly lyrical orchestration.
It has been fortunate, too, on disc: although the very first recording, by Berlin State Opera forces under Oscar Fried a mere forty years after its first performance is rather a ragged affair, four years later it was a different story when the Berlin Philharmonic recorded it under a young Jascha Horenstein. Both these accounts were on the brisk side, certainly when compared with the typical performances of today. The trend towards more expansive, ever richer and more opulent recordings really set in with the advent of the stereo era, and the contrast between performances in the 2020s and the 1920s could hardly be starker – too often, sadly, proving that it really is possible to love a work to death.
There have, however, been notable outliers who have pushed back against this unfortunate trend: Roger Norrington with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, and (more unexpectedly but also more successfully) Iván Fischer with his Budapest Festival Orchestra. Now François-Xavier Roth – best-known on record with his period-instrument orchestra Les Siècles – joins their number, in a disc taken from live performances with his ‘other’ band, the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne. And, as with his recent Mahler discs, it’s a performance that is rich in insight while blowing away the cobwebs.
With antiphonally divided violins (the seconds are to the conductor’s and listener’s right), textures are opened up, and without going fully down the Norringtonian route of strictly vibrato-less strings, Roth is careful with its deployment, so that there’s a purity of sound you just don’t get with the latter-day Gewandhaus or Vienna Philharmonic.
But above all it’s the sense of fluidity that really makes this performance stand out. Was there ever a first subject that demanded a flowing pulse more than the glorious arpeggiated cello melody that opens the Seventh? Coupled with a strictly observed pianissimo tremolo from the violins, this makes for an auspicious beginning, and it remains an enormously impressive performance throughout its 56-minute span. The care over dynamics and the balancing of leading ideas is particularly welcome: Bruckner frequently writes hervortretend (literally ‘coming forward’) over the more important lines, and Roth, helped by the natural acoustic of the Kölner Philharmonie, duly obliges.
While Roth is (mercifully) slower than Norrington in the great opening movement, which builds to an hugely imposing climax, in the remaining movements he is (often by just a fraction) actually faster. Yet there’s never any sense of the music being driven too hard, even in the great Adagio, which at just over 18 minutes really flows, with the 3/4 Moderato of the ‘B’ section taking on the delightful (and most affecting) gait of a slowed-down Ländler. At certain moments (rehearsal letter T, for example) Roth gives the phrasing a gentle helping nudge; but with the glorious climax helped by a natural expressiveness that’s miles away from the cloying way of some of our more celebrated Bruckner conductors, this is one of the most moving accounts of the slow movement on disc in many years, the coda clothed in elegiac shades of subtly gradated piano and pianissimo. Wagner (whose final illness is said to have inspired the movement, news of his death coming as Bruckner penned the coda) would surely have been especially touched by this account.
The A minor Scherzo has bite and urgency without roughness, while its F major Trio, a moment of notable stillness amid the passion and lyricism of the rest of the work, nevertheless rises to a nicely brought out dynamic contrast at bars 116/117. The Finale – neither a renewed struggle nor a climactic summation of what has preceded it, but rather a sort of benign retrospective celebration – has a sense of gently reined-in urgency, with wonderfully pure-toned strings for the chorale-like second idea at letter C. In the final build up, the brass – impressive throughout the performance – take on an extra glow, adding to the sense of harmonious well-being as the Symphony reaches its conclusion.
Even those who prefer to have their Bruckner ‘slow and patient’ should hear this remarkable performance. Roth uncovers a myriad of detail in each of the movements, more often than not merely by observing what’s in the score and ensuring its faithful execution; nothing feels forced or contrived. In the Gürzenich Orchestra – a distinguished body of players, which counts Steinbach, Abendroth, Wand and Janowski among its former conductors – he has the ideal partners, consistently stylish and refined, yet never over-ripe. As rarely happens even in this work, everything seems to fall into place.
It has been fortunate, too, on disc: although the very first recording, by Berlin State Opera forces under Oscar Fried a mere forty years after its first performance is rather a ragged affair, four years later it was a different story when the Berlin Philharmonic recorded it under a young Jascha Horenstein. Both these accounts were on the brisk side, certainly when compared with the typical performances of today. The trend towards more expansive, ever richer and more opulent recordings really set in with the advent of the stereo era, and the contrast between performances in the 2020s and the 1920s could hardly be starker – too often, sadly, proving that it really is possible to love a work to death.
There have, however, been notable outliers who have pushed back against this unfortunate trend: Roger Norrington with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, and (more unexpectedly but also more successfully) Iván Fischer with his Budapest Festival Orchestra. Now François-Xavier Roth – best-known on record with his period-instrument orchestra Les Siècles – joins their number, in a disc taken from live performances with his ‘other’ band, the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne. And, as with his recent Mahler discs, it’s a performance that is rich in insight while blowing away the cobwebs.
With antiphonally divided violins (the seconds are to the conductor’s and listener’s right), textures are opened up, and without going fully down the Norringtonian route of strictly vibrato-less strings, Roth is careful with its deployment, so that there’s a purity of sound you just don’t get with the latter-day Gewandhaus or Vienna Philharmonic.
But above all it’s the sense of fluidity that really makes this performance stand out. Was there ever a first subject that demanded a flowing pulse more than the glorious arpeggiated cello melody that opens the Seventh? Coupled with a strictly observed pianissimo tremolo from the violins, this makes for an auspicious beginning, and it remains an enormously impressive performance throughout its 56-minute span. The care over dynamics and the balancing of leading ideas is particularly welcome: Bruckner frequently writes hervortretend (literally ‘coming forward’) over the more important lines, and Roth, helped by the natural acoustic of the Kölner Philharmonie, duly obliges.
While Roth is (mercifully) slower than Norrington in the great opening movement, which builds to an hugely imposing climax, in the remaining movements he is (often by just a fraction) actually faster. Yet there’s never any sense of the music being driven too hard, even in the great Adagio, which at just over 18 minutes really flows, with the 3/4 Moderato of the ‘B’ section taking on the delightful (and most affecting) gait of a slowed-down Ländler. At certain moments (rehearsal letter T, for example) Roth gives the phrasing a gentle helping nudge; but with the glorious climax helped by a natural expressiveness that’s miles away from the cloying way of some of our more celebrated Bruckner conductors, this is one of the most moving accounts of the slow movement on disc in many years, the coda clothed in elegiac shades of subtly gradated piano and pianissimo. Wagner (whose final illness is said to have inspired the movement, news of his death coming as Bruckner penned the coda) would surely have been especially touched by this account.
The A minor Scherzo has bite and urgency without roughness, while its F major Trio, a moment of notable stillness amid the passion and lyricism of the rest of the work, nevertheless rises to a nicely brought out dynamic contrast at bars 116/117. The Finale – neither a renewed struggle nor a climactic summation of what has preceded it, but rather a sort of benign retrospective celebration – has a sense of gently reined-in urgency, with wonderfully pure-toned strings for the chorale-like second idea at letter C. In the final build up, the brass – impressive throughout the performance – take on an extra glow, adding to the sense of harmonious well-being as the Symphony reaches its conclusion.
Even those who prefer to have their Bruckner ‘slow and patient’ should hear this remarkable performance. Roth uncovers a myriad of detail in each of the movements, more often than not merely by observing what’s in the score and ensuring its faithful execution; nothing feels forced or contrived. In the Gürzenich Orchestra – a distinguished body of players, which counts Steinbach, Abendroth, Wand and Janowski among its former conductors – he has the ideal partners, consistently stylish and refined, yet never over-ripe. As rarely happens even in this work, everything seems to fall into place.
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