Search - Bruckner, Furtwangler, Bpo :: Symphony 7 in E Major

3 stars is not a good review from me

Alan Majeska | Bad Axe, MI, USA | 08/27/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I'm giving this 3 stars, and that's not a good review from me. The performance is fine, as Furtwangler's usually are: soaring, thought provoking. But the remastered sound is poor, hence only 3 stars for the grade. Centurion's sound engineers either had a poor tape source to work with, or did so much equalization, the sound is very artificial. All the reverb is gone, and there is little midrange: only treble, which is shrill and steely sounding, and bass: muddy and booming.



The label says "1951 recording." This is a disappointment, as there are many 1951 recordings which sound much better than this. Karl Bohm/Vienna Philharmonic have a 1948 recording of Bruckner 7 (Classico d'Oro) which is much better than Centurion's release listed here. For modern sound, I would suggest Bruno Walter/Columbia Symphony (Sony); Bohm/Vienna Philharmonic (DG alone, or Andante: coupled with Furtwangler's Bruckner 8); Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic (EMI, just re-released in a new Karajan edition), or Georg Tinter's recording from the 1990s on Naxos.



I am sorry not to be more positive about this recording, but these are my observations. I would go for Bohm, or a more modern recording suggested above."