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.
