Search - Anton Bruckner, Linos-Ensemble :: Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

A sweet chamber ensemble arrangement!

John Q. Walker | North Carolina | 04/01/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For Bruckner lovers, this is one of the sweetest performances I've encountered. It was arranged in 1921 by members of Schonberg/Berg/Webern's team -- for clarinet, horn, two violins, cello, double-bass, piano, and harmonium. There's nothing "12-tone" about it -- just gorgeously performed chamber music, where all of Bruckner's lines are easily heard. The piano makes it seem like a Brahms piano trio at times. This is the best CD of the year for me."

Bruckner Redux? A Must for Brucknerians!

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 02/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While still in the throes of exaltation form a live performance of the hugely orchestrated, mammoth, long Bruckner 7th symphony, it is so refreshing to return to this startlingly brilliant reduction of the score by the Viennese group of new modernists in the 1920s, a group that included such luminaries as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg, who acknowledging their own revolution against romanticism, elected to dissect the vast works of the romantic masters into chamber works. Could the overall emotional effect tolerate such vivisection?



In this wonderfully recorded version - for clarinet, horn, two violins, cello, double bass, piano, and harmonium - the answer is a resounding "Yes!". Pair this chamber music version with any of the large full orchestral versions of the 7th and will discover many subtle compositional elements once thought beyond the mental capabilities of the 'lowly, peasant God-fearing organist' who gratefully lived his life in the shadow of the master Richard Wagner.



The Linos Ensemble re-creates this little masterpiece of reduction with utter clarity and devotion to both the work at hand and a reverence to Anton Bruckner. This should be in the libraries of all who are committed to this composer's output. Grady Harp, February 2005"