Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra - Bruckner: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 (2019)

Urania presents recordings from 1959 and 1967 of Bruckner’s Symphonies Nos. 7 and 8 performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Evgeni Mravinski.

We can easily say that, with regards to Bruckner’s symphonic repertoire, a true Russian tradition did not exist up to Evgeny Mravinski, who was the first not-German conductor going through Bruckner’s universe. These two versions, of two among the most famous Symphonies of the Maestro,

perfectly focus the approach of the great conductor to who, at the time, was considered a minor author. Mravinsky’s versions, as far as giant and of the highest expressive strenght, it is extremely rigorous and does not soundmagniloquent as typical of the late-romantic manner. By contrast, the approach of the soviet conductor is based on that compact sound and that sort of sentimental dryness which characterize also his Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies.

It is a laical vision, not tied to that mystic direction that many German conductors (mainly Furtwangler and Knappertbusch) give to Bruckner. What arises here is a symphonism of great architectural coherence, which reveals his meanning in the harmonc structure of the composition and it get close, in a some ways, to the world of Gustav Mahler.