Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Bruno Walter :: Schubert: Symphonie D. 759; Mahler: Symphonie No. 1

A spirited reunion for Walter in Munich

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've been cautiously casting about for live recordings from Bruno Walter. The various pirate releases are usually in awful sound, but Orgeo is among the most respected reissue labels. Walter's heart attack in 1957 turned a vigorous, sometimes impetuous conductor into the benign, grandfatherly figure of later years. His autumnal period brought some treasurable recordings, but I sitll wanted to know the yonger Walter better. Young is relative, of course. The conductor was 70 when he sailed back to post-Nazi Europe in 1946. Making the rounds of the great musical capitals, he saved Munich until nearly the last. This is his return concert in Oct. 1950.



The liner note is fascinating about Walter's early days in Munich. Mahler sent him there in 1910 to prepare the premiere of the Eighth Sym., and a year later, with Mahler now dead, Walter returned to premiere Das Lied von der Erde, which had been left in his care. By 1913 he was appointed musical director of Bavaria, a royal appointment that required him to wear court dress, complete with sword, on state occasions. Anti-Semitism made it impossible for Walter t last beyond 1922, despite frequent re-engagements as guest conductor thereafter. Much more of the story is detailed in the notes; all of it is worth reading.



And the performances? The Schubert "Unfinished" and Mahler First are given pliant, affectionate readings, and both show more vigor than Walter's later stereo remakes in California. By Toscanini standards these aren't intense or disciplined accounts -- expect several turmpet and horn fluffs in the Mahler -- but there's considerable spirit. Walter makes some surprising tempo choices, taking the famous tune in the "Unfinished" faster than you might expect. In the Mahler he doesn't slow down for the Trio of the Scherzo or speed up for the so-called Jewish music in the slow movement.



But those are secondary comments. The music is approached with considerable thrust, and if we only had this version of the Mahler, more could be made of it. However, Walter made an incomparable reading of the First with the NY Phil. in 1954, and it is so much better played and recorded that most listeners will want to seek it out on the used market in Sony's magnificent but out-of-print remastering. The sound here is actually pretty decent -- smooth, clear, without obvious defects. But it's still a radio tape from 1950, and fairly distant miking renders woodwind detail rather obscure. As clarinet, oboe, and flute take their solos in the second movement of the Schubert, they sound muffled in the string sound.



These performances are good enough to more than hold their own, and there are long stretches, as in the last movement of the Mahler, when things get exciting. On the whole, however, dspite the fascinating background story and the emoiton it raises, this isn't an indispensable Walter recording."