Anton Bruckner -- Symphony No. 7 in E Major -- Score

Anton Bruckner dedicated his 7th Symphony, officially, to Ludwig II, King of Bavaria. But spiritually, it is dedicated to his mentor, Richard Wagner. Introduction to the music of Wagner and Franz Liszt in the early 1860s made a profound impression on Bruckner. Although in his thirties, he still considered himself a student at this time, and was quite slow in growing enough confidence in his work to submit it for public performance and publication. When he did, he was immediately criticized for his association with the "new music" of Liszt and Wagner. Paradoxically, Bruckner's music was also seen by some as too constrained and conservative. Bruckner himself looked backwards toward Beethoven and Haydn as much as he looked forward with his contemporaries. That paradox was reflected in his own life, and the contradiction between his personal life and his work.

As Wagner's health began to decline, Bruckner was inspired to write a musical eulogy of sorts, which became the second movement of this symphony. Fittingly, it starts out with four Wagner tubas. Wagner worked to develop this instrument for his Ring Cycle, combining it with other new instruments, the bass valved trumpet and contrabass trombone, to produce innovative sounds. While similar to a horn (it has the same mouthpiece and fingering, and is usually played by horn players) it sits upright in the player's lap with the bell projecting upward, similar to the more conventional tuba. The sound is similar to the horn, but can be richer, more noble, or more forceful, depending on how it is used.

As with some other recordings on this channel, this one is notable. Herbert von Karajan was very interested in recording technology, and his career saw the development of both the LP record and the Compact Disc, which had great promise for classical music in particular. The first allowed longer works like symphonies and operas to be broken up by movements/acts, rather than constrained to the short sections of 78 and 45 rpm records. The latter offered incredible new fidelity in reproducing intricate detail of orchestral music, and even greater uninterrupted playback. Von Karajan eagerly embraced the new medium and embarked on a program of re-recording his earlier output. This is the final disc he recorded, less than three months before his death.

0:00 1: Allegro moderato
19:51 2: Adagio: Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam
43:01 3: Scherzo: Sehr schnell
53:07 4: Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht schnell

This video is produced for educational purposes, for the benefit of amateurs, enthusiasts, and professional musicians alike. No claim of ownership is made over the component parts of this video. SMW is always happy to take suggestions for upcoming videos.

[mr-wxlv]

Amazing symphony. And a good performance of it too. Karajan was good at late Bruckner.
In many ways this Bruckners "pastoral" symphony. First movement kind of like extended Beethoven. More gentle themes and orchestration. Scherzo kind of stormy . Bruckner was a master of developing his themes and motifs and unifying his thematic material.

[robertbrainerd]

Bruckner was a successful performance artist (organist) before he turned to composition.

[ssb]

Great video. Slight correction. I believe Bruckner was 64 when this symphony premiered. I think he became a composer well into his late 30's

[thegr]

5:54
14:48
16:22
33:38
44:16
1:00:19

[MichaelWang-hp]

I know Karajan always used Haas Edition , but your score link is to the Novak Edition on the IMSLP site. I wonder whether the score on your video is Haas if it is from Karajan's live CD. Both edition have 133 pages, but still with minor differences in notes.

[knoy]

I have heard several versions of this symphony. Can anyone tell me why the key appears one semitone higher? 😂