Bruckner: Symphony No.7 / Wand, Berliner Philharmoniker

　　Product Notes:
　　
　　Gunter Wand was the last of what many regard to have been the greatest generation of Bruckner conductors. This glorious interpretation of Bruckner's 7th Symphony was among Wand's final recordings and it features all of the knowing characteristics which sealed his distinguished reputation. Tempos are often treacherously powerful and broad, and his ability to ... (展开全部) 　　Product Notes:
　　
　　Gunter Wand was the last of what many regard to have been the greatest generation of Bruckner conductors. This glorious interpretation of Bruckner's 7th Symphony was among Wand's final recordings and it features all of the knowing characteristics which sealed his distinguished reputation. Tempos are often treacherously powerful and broad, and his ability to shift dynamics and subtly gradate orchestral texture is peerless. The Berlin Philharmonic are remarkably responsive throughout performing with a clarity and precision only an orchestra with their many decades of experience with conductors who've continued to champion Bruckner could. The sound is appropriately big and full with a solid presence that belies its Live recording.
　　
　　
　　Editorial Reviews:
　　
　　Nothing better illustrates the schizoid, rudderless, screwed up mess that the major labels have made of their classical music wings than RCA's treatment of Günter Wand. Here you have one of today's great conductors of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, and the rest of the basic German repertoire. In fact, given RCA's evident willingness to invest large sums of money recording, re-recording, and re-re-recording him in the same works, you would think that Wand's every performance, no matter how pointlessly redundant discographically speaking, must be a major event worthy of preservation, financial matters be damned. This, in any event, is what the company's actions indicate. But then, RCA deletes his back catalog, refuses to give most of his new releases international distribution, cuts out the ones that accidentally slip through quarantine with a ruthless efficiency nowhere in evidence on the sales side of the business, spends not a nickel on advertising or any other type of marketing support, and generally treats Wand's Bruckner as a major embarrassment to world culture. If this isn't a classic case of corporate multiple personality disorder, then what is?
　　
　　That said, this latest Bruckner Seventh, Wand's third go at the piece, sounds absolutely magnificent in all respects-- interpretation, playing, and sound. He sets flowing tempos and holds each movement together organically, effortlessly. There are so many wonderful moments: his perfect pacing of the big brass outburst of the inverted main theme in the first movement's development and the way this merges imperceptibly into the recapitulation; his rapturous vision of the same movement's coda; the way the great Adagio's principal theme surges forward, especially on its first reappearance after the lyrical second subject, like some great wave; and the same movement's climax, a moment of supreme fulfillment even without the controversial percussion parts. There are also those miracles of textural transparency and orchestral balance that Wand has made his personal trademark in Bruckner, most noticeable in the Scherzo, where all of those little woodwind echoes that permeate the movement peek through the most heavily scored passages like individual stars on a cloudy night. This newcomer clearly surpasses Wand's previous two recordings of this symphony (something that hasn't been unambiguously true of his Berlin Bruckner performances), and RCA was right to capture it. Why, then, won't they sell it?　　

　　1. Allegro Moderato
　　2. Adagio. Sehr Feierlich Und Sehr Langsam
　　3. Scherzo. Sehr Schnell
　　4. Finale. Bewegt, Doch Nich Zu Schnell