Mariss Jansons / BRSO Bruckner 7th Review

Well-played but focus, drive and idiom wanting.

It is always easier to find faults with a recording or performance than digging up the true merits of it, people would say or think. I'd concur. It is therefore after much care in repeated listening that I'd try to post what I think of this new Jansons recording of the Bruckner Seventh.

It was recorded in the Grand Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, known for its excellent acoustics.

The BRSO came 6th in the Gramophone's ludicrous ranking of the world’s orchestras in 2008, which is not a mean feat, the validity of the ranking notwithstanding. The orchestra has a sinewy string tone superimposed on a gritty, sometimes even gravelly, orchestral texture. This is in stark contrast to that of the RCO Jansons conducted for the B3&4, which I commented on earlier. The brass section has a fair deal in this texture, but sometimes it appears to be attached to the whole sound picture as an appendage rather than an integral part of it, particularly in the last two movements.

With due respect, I'd say Jansons still has not mastered the idiom of Bruckner, and the Adagio sounds much like a Tchaikovsky symphony. The magical counterpoints in Bruckner's music, which the composer must have taken great pains to mould them, were not fully depicted in this reading. Listen to the Paavo Jarvi recording and you'll appreciate the difference, and what wonderful counterpoints Bruckner has brought us. The cymbal and triangle are there at the climax (17'03), for the Nowak edition he employed.

The limited dynamic range I lamented in Jansons' B3&4 recordings is still very much evident. Two orchestras, two recording venues, and not to mention different balance engineers would simply provided the answer to the question of who is responsible for this mf or above dynamic bracket -- all pointed to none other than Jansons himself.

In general Jansons' reading was lethargic and this lack of drive is uncommon to him, given his credentials in the wonderful Tchaikovsky symphonies he recorded with the Oslo Philharmonic. His sudden ritardando at the height of the first tutti in the first movement did him no favour in this regard. Coupled with strongly inflected phrasings and the infelicities mentioned above, it makes quite uncomfortable listening.

The Adagio, with all the music's intrinsic beauty, sounded so sterile in terms of emotions and pathos. It's also unfocussed. If you longed for a better understanding and observance of Bruckner's Luftpause, you have to look elsewhere. This is where a true master Brucknerian will excel, and I regret to say that Jansons is not one, or at least not yet.

The Scherzo was mechanical and again fell prey to a malaise that permeated the previous two movements. Why the nonchalance? At long last, the drive and a purposeful forward momentum arrived at the beginning of the Finale, but stayed there not for long. Jansons presented us with many interesting felicities of textured sonority and details, but they all did not add up to an organic whole, and the solid architectural grasp so famous and treasured of Karajan's or Wand's was sadly not evident here.

Maybe I'm just unable to appreciate his Bruckner, but it's a disappointment to me.