Symphony No. 7 in E Major

Bruckner said that the opening of the Seventh Symphony (1881-83) came to him in a dream, and it is easy to believe. The long, nobly arching melody seems to climb heavenward, but eventually the vision fades and shadows fall. The long first movement aspires to recapture that vision, and at last patience is rewarded in a radiantly affirmative coda. On one level, it is a moving expression of Bruckner's intense Roman Catholic faith, but the music also breathes his love of his native Austrian countryside, its woodlands, its cosy villages and magnificent monasteries, with always the distant prospect of the towering Alps. Grief is then expressed and touchingly resolved in the glorious “Adagio", ending with a splendid tribute to Bruckner’s hero Wagner (featuring the so-called “Wagner tubas"), who died the year the symphony was finished. The country dance music Bruckner knew intimately pervades the exciting "Scherzo", then the symphony concludes with the lightest of all Bruckner’s finales, its closing bars another splendid reaffirmation of the original visionary promise. Bruckner is never in a hurry, and, as so often in his symphonies, there are pauses and sudden changes in direction that can confuse the first-time listener. But stick with him, and you will find that the ending justifies the journey. Many emotions are expressed here, but in the end joy prevails.