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Review by Windsurfer March 16, 2006 (9 of 9 found this review helpful)
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I first heard the Bruckner 7th on a Vox LP back in 1956. There were things in the music that immediately appealed, but due to sonic muddying, quite a bit went unappreciated. Then more than ten years later, I bought a stereo LP with Solti and the Vienna Philharmonic and much of the symphony became more easily understood. Still there were elements, either due to interpretive excess or the limits of my equipment or the LP itself, that were still inaccessible. Finally I heard it played live in Carnegie Hall by (I actually think it was Boehm) and the Vienna Philharmonic in 1975. The visual spectacle combined with an unfortunate seat kept me from full appreciation of the music. CDs with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Karjan and Abbado never fully brought me to this music.
I am speaking not of the first movement which always seemed etherial and grand, but to the middle movements and the finale which never seemed to have the stature of the first movement. I was so tired of what I had so far heard over the span of fifty years that I almost passed this up.
Boy am I glad I didn't do that! Here is the interpretation and the sound I had always needed. Everything now seems right and the music in each movement finally takes on the stature I always imagined it should, but could never quite assign to it.
As I hear it, Kreizburg does nothing that isn't intuitively right. PentaTone gives us one of their best recordings and the Vienna Symphony, (not Philharmonic) plays like they are giving this one their all. It is a wonderful performance captured in superb multi-channel sound that places the listener about 10 to 12 rows back from the stage in a hall with excellent acoustics.
A sonic spectacular, music everyone should get to know like the back of their hand, and a performance to live with in the long term. This is not likely to be bettered in the short term and probably not even in the long term. While Harnoncourt will surely do this with the Vienna Philharmonic, I seriously doubt it will displace this one as my favorite! This disc is a must-have!
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