Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

Album review

The approach of the 2024 bicentennial of Bruckner's birth has brought various Bruckner symphony cycles, and these help listeners come to grips with these vast works. There have been weighty cycles from Austrian and German orchestras with long traditions of performing Bruckner, but the one by the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under the baton of Paavo Järvi has gained special critical acclaim. This reading of the Symphony No. 7 in E major, released in 2023, makes a good place to start with the series and, indeed, with Bruckner in general. Weighty it is not, and one might say it runs generally counter to type for Bruckner. Järvi instead sculpts a flowing, warm interpretation, shorter across the board than his previous recording with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. There is evidence of a great deal of work having been put in; the orchestra's string section sounds superb (as do the brass at the big climaxes), and there is no lack of small detail. However, that detail never stops things from moving along. The slow movement is beautifully controlled, really transcendent if one enters into the mood, and the trio of the Scherzo has a delightful Schubertian quality. Järvi certainly doesn't close the book on Bruckner's Seventh here, but he has created an absolutely distinctive reading in the face of competition from better-known ensembles.

© James Manheim /TiVo