Bruno Walter Conducts and Talks About Mahler Symphony No. 9

Bruno Walter Conducts and Talks About Mahler Symphony No. 9

On this CD:

1. A Talking Portrait: Bruno Walter in Conversation with Arnold Michaelis (Discussion)
Composed by Bruno / Michaelis, Arnold Walter

Conducted by Bruno Walter

2. A Working Portrait: Recording the Mahler Ninth Symphony (Discussion)
Composed by Bruno / McClure, John Walter

Conducted by Bruno Walter

3. Symphony No. 9 in D major
Composed by Gustav Mahler
Performed by Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Bruno Walter

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
It was to Bruno Walter that Mahler entrusted the score of his Ninth Symphony in the autumn of 1910, knowing that he himself would not live to conduct the premiere. Walter gave the premiere on June 26, 1912, in Vienna, and throughout his long career remained the work's greatest champion. He was 84 when he made this recording, and the reading he elicits from the Columbia Symphony is suffused with nostalgia, warmth, and deep sentiment. Here, a work of leave-taking is interpreted in the spirit of leave-taking, though the treatment is no less radiant and sincere for being somewhat detached. Disc 1 of this two-CD set contains two bonus tracks: an interview in which Walter discusses music with Arnold Michaelis and a rehearsal sequence narrated by producer John McClure. As McClure points out, Walter still carried inside of him the physical memories of 50 years earlier, when he had premiered the symphony--despite repeated pleas from the control room, he could not keep himself from stamping his foot on the upbeat to the string entrance 17 seconds into the second-movement Ländler, which comes through brilliantly on the recording. It was after all a dance, and Walter felt it that way, just as Mahler would have. --Ted Libbey

Bruno Walter Conducts and Talks About Mahler Symphony No. 9, Music, Gustav Mahler, Spoken Word, Bruno / McClure, John Walter, Bruno / Michaelis, Arnold Walter, Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Arnold Michaelis, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Music, Romantic Symphony, Symphonic

Bruno Walter Conducts and Talks About Mahler Symphony No. 9

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