Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

Album review

Many Bruckner symphony performances stretch the orchestra to the limit to emphasize the composer's vast orchestral canvases. Others milk the emotional extremes with Mahlerian histrionics. Young conductor Lahav Shani -- settled in with the Rotterdam Philharmonic for five years when this recording appeared in 2023 -- takes a third approach, one that relies on the Classical strain that is always there in Bruckner. His interpretations are deliberate, logically developing, and organic. Here, in the Symphony No. 7 in E major, he is about five minutes faster than the average. Shani is especially strong in the outer movements. In the 20-minute opening movement, the noble opening theme sings, and it leads into the gradually building material of the rest of the movement naturally, inevitably. The finale, as close to cheerful as Bruckner ever got, is beautifully controlled, with its Haydn-esque qualities on full display. There will always be disagreements about Bruckner, and to these ears, the full impact of the Wagner tubas in the slow movement doesn't quite come out, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, while it responds with great agility to Shani's ideas, is not the Vienna Philharmonic. However, Shani's recordings in Rotterdam have announced the arrival of a major new conducting talent, and this one is no exception.

© James Manheim /TiVo