Search - Bruno Walter :: Bruno Walter Edition - Mozart: Symphony no.36 (Rehearsal and Performance) and Symphony no. 38

It's Bruno Time!

jdflynnno | 11/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although he is far better known as being a champion of Mahler's music (and not all of it, by the way), Bruno Walter also carried on Mahler's tradition of conducting Mozart as a mature, substantial composer. This was not always the case at the start of the 20th Century, and along with Sir Thomas Beecham, Otto Klemperer and Karl Bohn, Walter helped bring Mozart into the modern era untouched and untarnished. The rehersal record is OK, although somewhat boring after a while unless you are a musician or a musicologist. But the performances of the symphonies themselves are beyond reproach. Walter puts into every downbeat every sinew of his 60 years of experience into every bar. The result of which we can still marvel at nearly 50 years later. Beauty, depth, precision, rhythm and even Mozart's humor are knitted together flawlessly by Walter's gifted hands and the responsive playing of the best recording studio band ever -- the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. I can't listen to Walter conduct these symphonies too much or else I find his interpretations so true, I can't listen to other recordings of two of my favorite symphonies. Those studio orchestra strings can get shrill at times and tubbiness from the American Legion Hall can creep in now and then, but man, these performances makes those things seem trivial. How lucky we are in this age of disposable music that Walter was kind enough to leave us his legacy of Mozart on record. How I hope I can thank Mozart and Walter one day in heaven."

One of the most fascinating classical recordings ever made

albertatamazon | East Point, Georgia USA | 09/08/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a budding classical music lover, I first was given this record album at the tender age of nine,and while I was too young to really appreciate it fully, I still knew that this was a fascinating and unusual recording. A few years ago,it finally appeared on CD,and I eagerly snatched it up. It is invaluable to music students and endlessly interesting to all but the most casual of classical music lovers.This 2-CD set is a 1956 recording of Bruno Walter's rehearsal and finished performance of Mozart's Symphony no.36 (the "Linz" Symphony). As a filler,the set also includes Mozart's 38th Symphony,but without a rehearsal. It is,as far as I know, the first commercial recording by a major company (Sony Masterworks, formerly Columbia Records) to have released a conductor's rehearsals of a symphony to the general public,and it provides us with an illuminating look into how a conductor guides and shapes a musical performance. Dr. Walter is so precise that we can actually tell the difference between the way the orchestra first plays certain passages,and how they are played AFTER Dr. Walter gives his orchestra instructions.As an example,we hear how the orchestra at first drags out the notes in the introduction to the symphony,and then how,under Dr. Walter's guidance and coaxing (he never stages a tantrum or becomes dictatorial),the notes gradually become shorter and shorter until they are played as Dr. Walter requests. He makes similar corrections throughout the symphony. He speaks with a pronounced Viennese accent,but he is still quite understandable,although there are a few instances when he speaks off-mike. Strangely enough, the sound on this recording,gloriously and crisply transferred from the mono LP's,captures the rehearsal much more clearly than the stereo recording which features Bruno Walter's rehearsal and finished performance of the Mahler Ninth. Unlike the Mahler recording, in which the mikes were situated so that the full stereo sound of the orchestra (but not Dr. Walter's voice) could be heard clearly, THIS recording uses only one microphone,placed directly in front of Bruno Walter, for the rehearsals only. This insures maximum pickup of his voice,while the orchestra can still be heard clearly. The finished performances of the Symphonies 36 and 38,however,use multiple microphones,and pick up the sound of the orchestra with all the depth one could hope for in a mono recording.This is truly an irreplaceable recording, as valuable as any legendary performance by Toscanini or Bernstein. Casual classical buffs may be bored,but then again,they may find the whole process of putting together a performance fascinating."