Anton Bruckner
Symphony No. 7 in E Major (1881-83) – Edition Robert Haas
1. Allegro Moderato
2. Adagio: Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam
3. Scherzo: Sehr schnell – Trio: Etwas langsamer
4. Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell
Live recording Aarhus Cathedral, Denmark, April 28, 2005
RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 2007
CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 855
EAN: 5709499655009
Symphony no. 7 in E major – The great, long-awaited breakthrough of the symphonist Ā©
When he completed his 4’Th symphony in 1874, Anton Bruckner had for the first time been able to find an established conductor who was prepared to take on the difficult task of defending his music against the conservatism of the Viennese audiences and music critics.
Bruckner himself had been obliged to give the first performances of his lst, 2nd and 3rd symphonies, and he was decidedly not the right man for the job. But neither did the famous Hans Richter, conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, succeed, in 1881, in achieving whole-hearted acceptance of Bruckner as a symphonist: the criticism was still and for the greater part so negative that in the years that followed the composer even requested that there be no more performances in Vienna – now he hardly dared to have his music played.
This “dismal domestic situation” (Bruckner’s own words) was however to change a few years later, and this occurred with the 7th symphony, which took two years to complete, from September 1881 to the same month in 1883. The breakthrough followed eighteen months later, thanks to the second performance in Munich under Hermann Levi, but this did not however bring about performances of the two preceding symphonies the 5th and the 6th were not heard (in their complete, orchestral form) until as late as 1894 and 1899, Gustav Mahler conducting the latter,
two years after Bruckner’s death.
But the breakthrough did occur. Initially for the work recorded here, later also for others; and finally, a few years after his death, Bruckner was universally acknowledged to be one of the greatest symphonists of the 19th century. Certainly not without controversy still prevailing, then and for a long time afterwards, regarding the merits or shortcomings of his music; but there could no longer be any doubt about Bruckner’s status as such.
In many ways it is understandable that the 7th symphony was the one to break the ice. In spite ofthe fact that the work shares many characteristics with the three symphonies immediately preceding – all of them in the major key – the 7th symphony gives the impression of a more serene and balanced symphonic whole than Bruckner’s earlier and later output. The key is indeed the most luminous to be found among the composer’s works: E major asserts itself as the preferred local key in many of his symphonies where the music suddenly breaks out into triumphal passages.