BRUCKNER SYMPHONY NO. 7

Bruckner's Seventh – The master's homage to Richard Wagner

With this recording of Anton Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, Clasart continues its Bruckner cycle with the Cleveland Orchestra under its principal conductor Franz Welser-Möst. Following the recording of the Fifth at the exuberantly Baroque monastery of St. Florian near Linz, Austria, and of the Ninth in Vienna's majestic Musikverein, the orchestra returns to its home turf for the recording of the Seventh.

Cleveland's Severance Hall is the venue for this performance, again under the baton of Welser-Möst. This hall, an eclectic yet elegant mix of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Classicism, Egyptian Revival and Modernism was inaugurated in 1931 and is still hailed today as one of the world's most beautiful concert halls. The Cleveland Orchestra, founded in 1918, began its ascent to the upper ranks of the world's ensembles after it moved to Severance Hall in 1931.

Franz Welser-Möst has extended his contract as Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra to 2018, the orchestra's 100th season. "Calm and composure are his trademarks, along with a supple, elegant, and exemplarily precise beating which should not be confused with distance and coolness. Again and again, lightning bolts of violent attaccas leap forth to set bold accents, build up towering mountains of sound, or to aim for monumental heights." (Vienna's Die Presse)

With the mighty build-ups and monumental fortissimi of Bruckner's Seventh, Welser-Möst and his Clevelanders have their work cut out for them. And they do not disappoint. The most popular, and perhaps most easily accessible, of Bruckner's symphonies, the Seventh casts its spell on the audience with its clear-cut architecture and the wealth and fullness of its melodies. From the sweeping opening theme of the first movement to the victorious chords of the finale, the Cleveland Orchestra and its conductor deliver a magisterial reading of Bruckner's masterpiece.