Wolfgang Sawallisch – August 1923-February 2013 – German maestro and pianist, one time music director of the Suisse Romande Orchestra, the Bavarian State Opera, and of the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducts the NHK SO in a performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (18 November 2004, Tokyo) that I find very satisfying, not least in terms of tempos that give time to reveal the inner-workings of the score without denuding the vitality of the music, which is also allowed to breathe..