This recording of Bruckner’s Seventh symphony takes just over 56 minutes. To get a sense of what that means, consider the fact that Celibidache takes 53 minutes for the first two movements alone. Only Ormandy on RCA is quicker, by about a minute, while Pesek requires about an hour. As with those performances, the results can be astonishing, both for what sounds as it does traditionally irrespective of tempo (the first movement’s opening theme) and for what does not (the rest of the exposition). Both Ormandy and Pesek at least slow down a bit for the first-movement coda, injecting a bit of the more standard Brucknerian grandeur, but not Fischer. He zips through it, light and fresh, the brass clear and glowing but never forcing the tone.
In the Adagio Fischer contrives to make those detached string phrases in the first subject “speak” as never before, and if the result isn’t exactly “very solemn and very slow”, as Bruckner requests, it’s amazingly expressive. And there’s still plenty of contrast with the lyrical second subject, which flows along at a true “moderato”. Fischer uses the extra percussion at the climax (cymbals, triangle, and timpani), which only reinforces the liveliness of the interpretation as a whole. Aside from that first-movement coda, you never get a sense that the music is being underplayed: much of its breadth is built in–you can’t really avoid it, and the very swift scherzo and finale (love that quick chorale in the latter) cap an interpretation that makes the work sound much less top-heavy than it often can.
That said, some listeners will miss the symphony’s traditional weight and solemnity–the hypnotic, timeless qualities that can make the first movement and the Adagio such spellbinding experiences. You might say that Fischer “de-spiritualizes” the music if you dislike the interpretation, and “humanizes” it if you do, but there’s no denying the fact that he has a valid and cogent vision of the work, one that the Budapest Festival Orchestra executes beautifully, captured by the Channel Classics engineers in typically warm, naturally balanced SACD sound. It’s also good to hear an orchestra that isn’t trying to be the Vienna Philharmonic or the Chicago Symphony, finding a way to play Bruckner in keeping with its own strengths.
This was a risky endeavor, and the result may not be entirely successful, but I suspect that many Brucknerians will enjoy it nevertheless, if only for those qualities that make it special.