BRUCKNER, A.: Symphony No. 7 (South West German Radio Symphony, Norrington)

Album review

After delivering excessively fastidious and hyper-sanitized recordings with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR of Anton Bruckner's Symphonies, No. 3, No. 4, and No. 6, the period practitioner non pareil Roger Norrington turns his attention to the Symphony No. 7 in E major, one of the most beloved symphonies in the canon and one for which fans would naturally have particular expectations. Naturally, as he has done before, Norrington denies them all, for he is not a Brucknerian in any ordinary sense, nor does he approach the symphonies through any sympathy for their tradition or affection for conventional interpretations. First, Norrington's singular practice involves having the strings play almost mechanically, with little to no vibrato and hardly any legato; dispensing generally with rubato and admitting little flexibility in rhythm or phrasing; arranging the orchestra according to seating plans of Bruckner's time, a Norrington trademark, and following the score to every jot and tittle, yet showing almost no awareness of how the music should sound; and finally, an avoidance of any hint of passion, tragedy, agony, grandeur, or ecstasy. The Symphony No. 7 is certainly one of Bruckner's most lyrical, impassioned, and sweepingly expressive works, so Norrington's dry, clinical treatment of it is tantamount to heresy, from the stiff, metrically accurate but inflexible playing of the opening movement, to the arid, anti-Wagnerian run-through of the Adagio, through the ridiculously clipped and choppy Scherzo, to the perverse stop-and-go pacing of the Finale. Taken altogether, this performance is quite difficult for any experienced Brucknerian to sit through without feeling physical distress or personal offense, and even newcomers to this symphony will sense that this is an antiseptic reading that sounds and feels absolutely wrong for its composer and its period. Hänssler's audio is clear and detailed, but it is also rather airless and dry, with almost no resonance, which is perhaps the last thing anyone wants in a Bruckner performance.
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