CD: Bruckner: Falla, etc: Philharmonia/ Giulini

This radio recording of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony with Giulini and the Philharmonia was made at the Proms in 1982; it was a performance totally dedicated from beginning to end.

This was the period when the Philharmonia was at its peak, and it is fascinating to compare this live account with the studio recording that Giulini made for Deutsche Grammophon with the Vienna Philharmonic later in the 1980s.

The Philharmonia playing is just as refined as that of the Viennese, not least from the strings, while the live interpretation has an extra intensity and concentration with speeds consistently faster and more flexible, so that climaxes are all the more thrilling in Bruckner's measured, expansive structures.

The Falla dances demonstrate Giulini's vigour, with the Prelude to Mussorgsky's Khovanschina an atmospheric makeweight.