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Rec. 4th January 1953; 25th March, 1939
Original CD transfer from tape and acetate discs by Music and Arts, 1990
XR remastering by Andrew Rose, April 2007
Download ID: 297669
(Duration 73'34 ")
Mahler - Symphony No. 4 (rec. 1953)
R. Strauss - Tod und Verklärung (rec. 1939)
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Play
sample movement:
"Walter’s deeply felt and loving way with the music finally
is given a chance to come through with minimal sonic restriction,
and the result is one of the greatest performances of this work
that I have encountered. Irmgard Seefried is lovely in
the finale, but it is the slow movement that is the highlight
of this reading, with the Philharmonic strings bathed in a lush glow."
Henry Fogel, Fanfare
Bruno Walter
"The lovable Bruno Walter," "the
conductor of humanity," they
called him in his American years.
He was born Bruno Walter Schlesinger
in Berlin, in 1876, and first
thought to make a career as a
pianist, making his debut as soloist
with the Berlin Philharmonic in
Moscheles' Concerto in E-flat at
age 12. Soon, under the impact of
a concert conducted by Bulow,
he decided to become a conductor.
He made his debut at 18 in
Cologne, in Lortzing's Waffenschmied.
A year later he went to
Hamburg, where he met Mahler,
who became a model, adviser,
and friend. He then held posts in
Breslau (where he dropped his last
name), Pressburg, Riga, and at the
Berlin State Opera where at 24 he
shared the repertory with Strauss
and Muck.
In 1910 he became an
Austrian citizen; he worked at the
Vienna Singakademie from 1911
to 1912; he then suceeded Mottl as
General Music Director of the Bavarian
State Opera (Munich) in
1913 where he worked with great
singers like Maria Ivogun, Delia Reinhardt
(who became his mistress
in his final California years and under
whose influence he became a
follower of Rudolf Steiner), and Karl
Erb.
In 1917 Walter gave the world
premiere there of Pfitzner's
Palestrina. In 1924 he moved to
Berlin,where for the next nine years
he conducted the Philharmonic in
an annual series of six programs,
whose highlights included authentic
Mahler performances, all-Mozart evenings (then a novelty),
and mixed programs like the one
he offered in 1928 on the occasion
of the Schubert centenary in
which the Unfinished was followed
by a series of Lieder sung by
Dusolina Giannini, whom he accompanied
at the piano, with the "Great" C-major Symphony closing
the evening.
From 1925 to 1929 he
was also General Music Director of
the Städtische Oper in Berlin, during
a musical golden age of that
city when three opera houses
flourished side by side. Thanks to
Walter, Berliners heard for the first
time not only such relatively recent
operas as Puccini's Turandot and
Debussy's Pelleas but, astonishingly,
even such masterpieces as
Euryonthe, Die Zauberfloete,
Tristan, Die Meistersinger and
Otello!
From 1929 to early 1933
Walter served as "Gewandhauskapellmeister"
in Leipzig (an
orchestra he valued above all
others, and one with which he
hoped to remain for life); from the
early twenties on he also guest-conducted
in the U.S., France
(which gave him citizenship when
he lost his Austrian passport), HoIland,
and the Scandinavian countries...
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