Eliahu Inbal has put all Brucknerians in his debt with his recordings of the first versions of the Third, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies; but it is difficult to be very enthusiastic about his new recording of the textually less problematic Seventh Symphony. By contrast with standards of orchestral playing familiar nowadays in Berlin, Vienna, Dresden and Amsterdam, the Frankfurt RSO's playing of this sublimely lyrical work is lacking in sureness of touch. Nor does Inbal seem to command the larger, or even at times the shorter term, rhythms of the work in a way which Brucknerians will naturally expect. In the finale, Inbal is too quick. This remarkable movement has its witty as well as its summarizing elements wonderfully well brought out by Rosbaud on a famous old mono recording (Vox STPL510752, 12/59—nla) and by Furtwangler on numerous occasions. Rosbaud and Furtwangler, quick enough in all conscience, took a little under 11 minutes, where most conductors—Bohm (DG), Barenboim (DG—nla), Haitink (Philips), Karajan (HMV and DG)—take a little over 12. Inbal dispatches the whole thing in 10'28''. Inbal's single-record LP format is economical, but there is a turnover at the fermata at fig. R of the Adagio. The sound is good but this is not, all in all, a record to recommend in preference to established favourites.
Herbert Blomstedt's Dresden recording is, by contrast, very much to be recommended—was indeed commended to me several months ago by one of Gramophone's many discriminating readers! Once or twice Blomstedt is a touch brusque (winds, ruhig, first movement, fig. H, for instance) and his a tempo on the symphony's last page, at the end of a nicely judged account of the finale, is less rigorous than, say, Karajan's. Elsewhere, the performance, which is gloriously recorded, has a blend of eloquence and electricity, deduced from within rather than applied from without, which most Brucknerians will recognize as being the real thing. There is no cymbal clash at the climax of the Adagio (fig. W); Blomstedt's Bruckner has no need of such brazen accretions to make its point.'