Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Bernard Haitink - Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (1979)

Bruckner's Seventh Symphony, a rare opus in classical music that is both popular and profound in equal measure, gets a first rate treat from the Haitink-RCO duo, with playing and sound that are, if nothing else, drop-dead gorgeous beyond any reproach.

This is actually the second go at the symphony by Haitink (1978), the third being the recent Chicago version.

It's remarkable how Haitink is able to elicit such idiomatic playing from the orchestra. Granted, the RCO knows the piece inside out, but there seems to be that extra degree of Brucknerian authenticity, commitment, and naturalness attached to it that no other ensemble, save for VPO under Bohm, could have achieved.

A case in point: the Adagio is the most hauntingly beautiful rendition since Karl Bohm's recording with VPO. So lyrical, so touchingly beautiful, sublime, transcendental .... and deeply profound .... that it elevates our souls to another world.

Phillips engineers did a wonder to capture the acoustics of Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam with the splendid results.

Combining the conductor’s no-nonsense but utterly natural approach that suits - more than any other composer - Bruckner perfectly, with the most sympathetically Brucknerian playing you’ll ever hear, this one goes straight to the top of mountain Everest of Bruckner 7ths.

It's that special, that great. It's a tremendous recording.