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The breakthrough
What must drive a composer to vehemently refuse to allow one of his works – which has already enjoyed a tremendously successful première – to be performed again, in fact, to himself use sharp words to protest an already scheduled concert? The answer is not so difficult to find in late nineteenth-century Vienna: he fears the equally famous and notorious Eduard Hanslick, the most important critic of the time. Anton Bruckner feared Hanslick, and he was right to do so: after all, the critic had turned into an antagonist, whose opinion and, especially, enormous influence could crush the career of a composer in the bud. But in 1884, the 60-year-old Bruckner was by no stretch of the imagination a young pup, besides which, he had already written six symphonic works. However, so far none of these had been a sweeping success in Vienna, where he had chosen to make his home (in fact, the première of the Symphony No. 3 could be termed nothing less than a fiasco).
Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 in E, written between 1881 and 1883, changed his life for the better. It was the breakthrough that brought him to public attention, and immediately won him the status of “musical authority”: someone to whom from now onwards people would defer, whom they would respect. What had happened? In February 1884, two of Bruckner’s students, Franz and Josef Schalk, had presented the symphony to the Leipzig Kapellmeister Artur Nikisch in an arrangement for piano duet, and thus won him over to the work. Not only had Nikisch been a violinist in the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra at the première of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2, but he also kept an open mind towards contemporary music. Hermann Levi, who was Hofkapellmeister in Munich, also promised to help to schedule a performance of the work: “By the day of the concert, half the town will already know exactly who Herr Bruckner is, whereas up until now – to our great shame, I must admit – no one was even aware of the composer, including the undersigned.” The première was delayed for a further few months; however, when it finally took place on December 30, 1884, under conductor Nikisch at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, it turned out to be an enormous success for Bruckner. This was followed on March 10, 1885, by a wildly acclaimed performance under Levi in Munich. Only the plans for performances in Vienna were thwarted by Bruckner, for the reasons mentioned above: “I protest against the performance of my Symphony No. 7. There is no point in staging it in Vienna, due to the presence of Hanslick and his consorts.” In fact, it was another entire year – after the symphony had already appeared in print – before the work was finally performed in Vienna on March 21, 1886. The following is an excerpt from Hanslick’s notorious “guillotine” verdict: “I frankly confess that it would be almost impossible for me to judge Bruckner’s symphony with any fairness, as it seems to me to be so unnatural, self-important, morbid and twisted.” He goes on to describe the work as “a pièce de résistance” and “a symphonic boa constrictor”: terms which completely dumbfound the modern listener. Therefore, it would seem appropriate to take a general look at Bruckner’s symphonies, in order to better classify Hanslick’s judgment.
The temporal dimensions of Bruckner’s symphonies are at least twice the size of those of the traditional work in the genre. This is due to his enormous expansion of the form – only the first and last movements are written in the traditional sonata form. Apart from the traditional contrast between first theme and second theme, Bruckner introduces a third, yet again contrasting theme by reassessing the final section, which is often a chorale. He now expands these three themes into independent theme groups or theme complexes, which are then subjected to diverse changes in the development: however, not always in the sense of strict thematic development, but more in view of their further employability within the symphonic cycle. A novelty in Bruckner’s music is the continuous development of intensification, which overruns the structure of the movements like waves, until finally leading to the breakthrough of the theme, a key concept in Bruckner’s symphonic works. Bruckner combines the following elements (often simultaneously) to achieve this process of intensification: through contraction of the rhythm, the themes are compressed and accelerated, accompanied by tremendous dynamic increases, which are once again intensified by sequencing regular harmonic models. The structural intensification is frequently cut off in a surprising – and apparently incomplete – manner, before a renewed attempt is undertaken to ascend the dynamic summit – “potenzierte Wiederholung” (= increased repetition). If one were to portray these dynamics with the aid of an acoustic seismograph, the needle would jump in constant agitation from ppp to fff, and back again! And not in the last place, it was this combination of temporal expansion, dynamic extremes and the large size of the orchestra which led to the accurate labelling of Bruckner’s symphonic style as block-like and “monumental”. In Bruckner’s music, the striking pauses – for instance, within the themes, or at times in between the theme complexes – are never just empty bars; rather, they form part of the metrical structure.
In consideration of these facts, it would seem relatively safe now to interpret Hanslick’s verdict as a defence against contemporary composers appearing on the scene – were it not for the fact that the Symphony No. 7 contains very definite unusual features, which clearly distinguish it from its six predecessors and also from its two successors (and thus ensure its ranking to this day as Bruckner’s most popular symphony). In no other symphony does Bruckner exploit the melodic potential to such extremes. The long-lingering, cantabile melodies (for instance, the first theme of the first movement, which stretches over 24 bars, or the magnificent continuous intensification of the “sound-chain” in the Adagio) and the homogeneous tonality (especially the solemn tuba theme in the Adagio, which is reminiscent of Wagner) make the music more easily accessible to the listener.
Over and above this compositional detailing, viewing the composition as a whole also reveals a concept which is unique within Bruckner’s symphonic works. As the themes of the movements in no way resemble the clearly defined and fixed block-like creations at which Bruckner the composer would at times slave away to the point of exhaustion, the effort required to create the intensification as described above was far less than in other works. The comparatively short Finale – in Bruckner’s oeuvre, the final movement was always the designated location for rounding off the cyclical coherence of the symphony – is thus spared any extreme outbreaks of violence (as, for instance, in his Symphony No. 5). Towards the end, the first theme from the first movement blossoms into splendour, outshining all else. The cycle is closed. The boa constrictor so feared by Hanslick had set out on its inexorable journey towards the future.

Yakov Kreizberg
The Russian-born American conductor Yakov Kreizberg currently holds the posts of Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Netherlands Philharmonic and Netherlands Chamber Orchestras, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. From 1995 to 2000 he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and he relinquished the post of Generalmusikdirector of the Komische Oper Berlin at the end of the 2000/01 season.
In demand across the globe, Yakov Kreizberg has conducted orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Berlin Philharmonic, WDR Köln, NDR Hamburg, Staatskapelle Dresden and BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, Bayerische Rundfunk, Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, and he has been a frequent guest at the BBC Proms.
Within North America, Yakov Kreizberg regularly works with prestigious orchestras including Philadelphia Orchestra (with whom he toured the Americas in 2003), Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, the Minnesota Orchestra and he has also conducted the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics and Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras.

Forthcoming plans include a tour of Spain, Germany and Switzerland with Vienna Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Munich Philharmonic.
As well as having recorded for Decca and Oehms Classics, Yakov Kreizberg’s collaboration with Pentatone Classics and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra has been extremely successful – their fourth release, Tour de France was issued in June 2005. Also with Pentatone Classics, Mr Kreizberg has recorded an award winning disc with Julia Fischer and the Russian National Orchestra, whilst his first recording with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Bruckner’s Symphony no. 7 was released in July 2005.

Mr Kreizberg established a fine reputation at the Komische Oper in a wide variety of repertoire. Elsewhere, he has conducted for Canadian Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, English National Opera and on a number of occasions with Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He has recently conducted Iolanthe with Netherlands Opera and will return in 2007/08 for Katya Kabanova. As part of the 2004 Bregenz FestivaI, he conducted Weill’s Der Protagonist and Royal Palace with Vienna Symphony Orchestra and in 2006 will conduct Macbeth at the Royal Opera House.
Born in St Petersburg, Yakov Kreizberg studied conducting privately with Ilya A. Musin, (the renowned Professor of Conducting from the St. Petersburg Conservatory) before emigrating to the United States in 1976. There he was awarded conducting fellowships at Tanglewood with Bernstein, Ozawa, Leinsdorf and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. In 1986 he won first prize in the Leopold Stokowski Conducting Competition in New York.

“The playing of the long-drawn opening melody (which Bruckner said came to him in a dream) suggests a conductor at ease with himself, the orchestra and the symphony.”
-Richard Osborne, Gramophone

“A sonic spectacular, music everyone should get to know like the back of their hand, and a performance to live with in the long term. This is not likely to be bettered in the short term and probably not even in the long term….This disc is a must have!”
--Bruce Zeisel, SA-CD.net

“I know of no superior competitors to Kreizberg on Super Audio Compact Disc, so it stands recommended.”
-Mark Jordan, Hifidelityreview.com

“The recent PHILIPS SA-CD with Seiji Ozawa and the Saito Kinen Orchestra pales by comparison, both in performance and sound. Highly recommended!”
--Robert Benson, classicalcdreview.com

“I have seldom experienced Bruckner’s musical messages in such tragic-monumental and passionate way.”
Stereoplay: KLANGTIPP
--Attila Csampai, Stereoplay

“Mr Kreizberg is a real Brucknerian. Blomstedt made a great recording of this symphony for Denon, but this is even better. Haitink was a tad detached here, Karajan somewhat rushed sometimes. I would say that Kreizberg is perfect.”
--Thomas Roth, Musik & Ljudteknik

“Kreizberg’s thoughtful and superbly executed interpretation deserves a wide hearing”

--Robert McColley, FANFARE

“Grammy” nomination (2006)

“This live recording of Bruckner's Seventh is just as distinguished. Kreisberg draws rapturous playing from the VSO, which can stand comparison here with the best efforts of the local Philharmonikers. He has the knack of letting the music flow while gently asserting control before the orchestra starts to meander…Expert engineering by Polyhymnia International. Hearing the music in SACD multi-channel playback will encourage the notion that the medium was invented for the express purpose of conveying the symphonies of Anton Bruckner.”
--La Scena Musicale

Symphony No. 7 in E major
1	Allegro moderato	21. 42
2	Adagio. Sehr feierlich und sehr langsam	23. 08
3	Scherzo. Sehr schnell	9. 59
4	Finale. Bewegt, doch nicht schnell	12. 41
	Total playing time :	67. 54