Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E Major

Bruckner's music embodies the visions of a devout, ordinary man. Parts of his expansive, shimmering musical landscapes are influenced by Wagner, but one can also detect Schubert, who began life in similar circumstances. The reposeful piety which runs through Bruckner's symphonic spectrum lends his music its unique power of attraction.

Well over a hundred years after Anton Bruckner's death, the discussions about him on the part of music historians and performers are not yet at an end. Anton Bruckner was a composer who flagrantly contradicted the spirit of his era. No other body of music has had to wait such a long time to gain the acknowledgement of audiences at large.

Otto Klemperer was born on 14th May 1885 in Breslau, Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) and died on 6th July 1973 in Zurich and hence next year we mark 40 years since his passing. Although disfigured by a stroke suffered whilst a brain tumour was being removed he became a world-renowned conductor whose recordings became and remain touchstones for the EMI catalogue.

Having completed the highly successful series of Beethoven recordings it was natural for EMI to seek further Romantic symphonies from Otto Klemperer. Although those by Anton Bruckner had been altered by good-meaning editors to make them more attractive to audiences of the time there were now editions which had attempted to revert to Bruckner’s original intentions and the advent of the LP with their much longer sides made recordings of these works much easier.

The first two to be recorded were Nos. 7 and 4 in November 1960 and September 1963 respectively. By the time of the next recording – of No. 6 in November 1964 – Walter Legge had left EMI and the orchestra had, with a great deal of support from Klemperer, established itself as a separate body and now called itself the New Philharmonia Orchestra. The recording of No. 5 followed in March 1967 with Nos. 9 and 8 following in February and October/November 1970.

This is a newly restored collection of previously released and no longer available Knappertsbusch best sellers from the Music & Arts catalogue.

Knappertsbusch was one of the great Bruckner interpreters and this bargain set includes symphonies Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.

In 2008 Challenge Classics released a very popular, limited edition of The Original Recordings 1950-1960 of the legendary Dutch conductor Willem van Otterloo with The Hague Philharmonic. This eagerly anticipated new seven-CD set presents a broader perspective, and features four renowned orchestras with which he conducted and recorded, including the Royal Concertgebouw, the Vienna Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Hague Philharmonic.

Willem Van Otterloo (1907-1978) was born in Winterswijk, Gelderland, in the Netherlands. While playing as a cellist in the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest, he won a composition prize from the Concertgebouw Orchestra for his Suite No. 3, which he presented in his 1932 conducting debut. He held posts with the Utrecht Stedelijk Orkest, before being appointed chief conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague (1949-1973).

Challenge Classics have also issued a disc of Van Otterloo’s compositions, performed by the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra (CC72180).