[SACD-R][OF] Seiji Ozawa, Saito Kinen Orchestra - Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E major, WAB 107 - 2004 (Orchestral)

Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra in the Symphony No. 7 of Anton Bruckner.
Review from Classics Today (7/10 Music & 8/10 Sound)

Seiji Ozawa is often at his interpretive best when he records with the Saito Kinen Orchestra. But this festival ensemble normally stays together for less than a month each year and is not on a level with full-time orchestras that have a firmer Bruckner tradition. Nevertheless, Ozawa’s interpretation of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony is a good one; the contrast between the singing opening material and the rustic third subject is well planned, resulting in a solidly constructed first movement. The second movement’s serene view of eternity is one of the tenderest I’ve heard, and the great climax is well judged (here using the controversial cymbal clash). The third movement is less outstanding. The scherzo is a touch too slow, and somehow the trio doesn’t relate to it. The finale, with its starts and stops and its reliance on brass, loses momentum more than once.
The strings sound glorious in this recording, but the woodwinds are ordinary, and the brass (with the exception of the trombones and tubas) lack the weight essential to Bruckner. The trumpets don’t blend with the rest of the section to create the rich, organ-like sonority the music demands, while the horns do not have the rich tone exhibited by German (and some British and American) orchestras. The engineering is solid; the surround program in this SACD is unusually active, with the prominent hall sound sometimes placing the brass toward the rear. It’s a rather nice effect, but it hardly seems natural.
Review from John Sunier at Audiophile Audition
A fine example of Bruckner’s heroic symphonic structures, the Seventh is in the usual four long movements (except for the Scherzo). It starts off with a long tremolo, a favorite Bruckner device. A long and noble melody is heard next, which the composer said came to him in a dream – although it quotes part his own Mass in D Minor! The Adagio was the composer’s funeral composition for Richard Wagner and it marks the first time Wagner tubas were used in a symphonic work. There are four of them plus a bass tuba, for a very rich and very low end sound. The finale is related to the opening movement and is a big symphonic movement introducing a hymn-like melody. The symphony very first theme returns at the end for a fulfilling conclusion. The way Bruckner worked with repetition is different from all other composers. At times he seems to be almost prophesying Philip Glass in getting the most emotion possible out of a repeated passage, and then just when you are about ready to say uncle there is a tension-releasing progression to a new section. He’s quite different from Mahler in this regard. There are no notes on the Saito Kinen Orchestra but as I recall it one of the major ones in Japan and Ozawa has a close relationship with it. Their playing is polished and expressive, but I find Gunter Wand and Bernard Haitink more emotional and exciting. The multichannel sonics are enveloping and effective.