Giulini's account of the Seventh Symphony is not, by and large, so impressive as his momentous account of the Eighth made for DG with the VPO in 1984 (415 124-1GH2; CD 415 124-2GH2, 7/85). The CD recording is again very fine, on a par with the excellent Blomstedt (Denon) and less opaque than the rather older Karajan CD (from 1978 also on DG). Equally fine is the string and brass playing of the VPO; the strings are especially sweet-toned and sure-footed. The woodwinds, though, are less impressive. both their tuning and their attention to dynamic shadings are less rigorous than that of their Dresden and Berlin rivals.
Giulini's tempos are unexceptionable in the outer movements and in a broadly sung Adagio. Climaxes are grandly achieved and in something like the coda of the Adagio he shows exemplary patience. Occasionally, though, the performance seems to hang fire. This is most obvious in the third movement, where the tempos are lingering ones. But in outer movements, too, the players often seem reluctant to let the notes go; nor does Giulini always levitate the phrasing in a way which floats the music forwards.
An unrepentant Nowakian, giulini uses the text which incorporates the changes made for Nikisch, a text printed by numerous houses from Gutmann (1885) onwards. Apart from the added cymbal and triangle at the Adagio's climax, the changes are minor. Indeed, I am not sure that the VPO have focused on them all with much determination. Right at the end of the Adagio Gutmann/Nowak start the pizzicato a whole bar earlier (for no obvious reason). In Giulini's performance the first chord sounds oddly tentative (a true ppp, as it happens, unlike the rest!). This may appear to be an utterly trivial detail, but it does characterize a degree of tentativeness in the reading as a whole.
Blomstedt—lucid, far-sighted, splendidly played and recorded—remains the clear leader of the field on CD. On LP the immediate competition is Karajan's very fine 1972 Berlin/EMI performance reissued last year at mid-price.'