Lahav Shani, Chief Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for the past five years, conducts the Dutch ensemble in Bruckner’s epic Symphony No. 7. Shani first encountered Bruckner’s music as a young double bass player in Israel. He admires the Austrian composer for his proverbially grand symphonic architecture, but also for his vision and the atmosphere he creates. Shani emphasizes the need for a conductor to take a finely judged and a coherent approach in the Symphony No. 7, following a storyline and building up to the mighty climaxes over extended periods “… from a hint of light to the whole world,” as he describes it.