FIRE WALTZ

These performances are also included on Sony's 10-disc set "Bruno Walter
Edition Volume 3" - Sony Classical 66248.

"[A]dmirers of this conductor will certainly want the mono rehearsal disc, for this demonstrates how he prepared the final performances of Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 7 and 9." -- Gramophone [8/1995]

This disc contains recordings of rehearsals.

Easily the best mono disc thus far in this series was made by Walter with the NYPO in 1956, and largely comprises of music by Johann Strauss II: it really is remarkably fine. The sound is spacious and full, in fact almost as good as stereo. To have Walter's accounts of the An der schönen, blauen Donau, the G'schichten aus dem Wienerwald and the Kaiser waltzes is treasure indeed, especially as the readings are so idiomatic. However, the conductor reserves his special affection for Wiener Blut, the introduction coaxed with loving care, the violins ravishing. In addition there are volatile performances of the Fledermaus and Zigenunerbaron Overtures. These Strauss items are coupled with four of Brahms's Hungarian Dances (Nos. 1, 3, 10 and 17). They are given a Viennese air and are filled out with charming detail. The concert ends with Walter's 1941 version of Smetana's "Vltava" (Ma vlast). This opens delicately and the moonlight sequence is also quite lovely. Unfortunately the restricted range of the recording prevents the St John's rapids episode from providing any sense of dynamic expansion, although the work's closing section comes off well.

-- Gramophone [8/1995]

The Columbia Symphony may not have been a first-class orchestra, but Bruno Walter trained to do the right things, and it responded with first-class accounts of the Brahms symphonies. While there are instances of less-than-crack ensemble, there is also some very fine first-desk playing, and the performances as a whole are marked by a natural feeling of movement, phrasing, and expression. Walter’s approach to the music is kindly, caring, wonderfully whole – sunny but not overly brilliant, warm but not overly heated, sincere but not overly impassioned. Anyone who thinks that means the conductor was slow, shapeless, or indulgent should listen. There is thrust here, and plenty of momentum. The recordings are closely miked and somewhat bass-heavy, but in Sony’s 20-bit remastering the sound is wonderfully alive and direct. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection

Poised and patrician interpretations that concentrate on lyricism, warmth, and spacious breadth rather than incipient tension.

Walter’s 1960 B flat recording hasn’t Beecham’s geniality or élan but it does have an unhurried and patrician affection that is hard to gainsay. The generosity of the phrasing never descends to Casals’s rather heavy-handed loving kindness; the sectional balance is fine, the direction remains crisply understated but affectionate. The wind and horn principals distinguish themselves in the slow movement where Walter brings out detail with candour but without any kind of finicky over-scrupulousness. Genial and leisurely – and without any crunching tutti weight – the finale is of a piece with Walter’s mature perception of the symphony. It’s a young man’s work but seen somewhat through avuncular and retrospective eyes.

The Unfinished was recorded two years earlier, this time in New York. Poised and patrician once more this is a reading that concentrates on lyricism rather than incipient tension or internal dynamic contrasts. The orchestra sounds notably fine and Walter’s direction retains a grand seigniorial approach, one that will perhaps disappoint those who might have missed the spirit of his fiery wartime performances with this orchestra, a time when he seemed on occasion hell bent on recreating Toscanini’s sweeping dynamism. Nevertheless his later approach certainly makes up in warmth and spacious breadth – especially the second movement – what it lacks in velocity and power.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International [reviewing Sony 78741]

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

Under Bruno Weil’s spirited direction both the Tolz Boys’ Choir, with their bright-edged, slightly breathy tone, and the crack period orchestra, Tafelmusik, are in first-rate form. These works receive energetic, uplifting readings, with brisk tempos, fresh, incisive choral work.

A special attraction for Haydn lovers here is the first-ever recording of the unfinished ode Mare Clausum, commissioned in 1794 by Haydn’s colourful English friend Lord Abingdon, and evidently abandoned when the nobleman was imprisoned for libel. The gauche, crudely chauvinistic verses, trumpeting England’s sovereignty of the sea, should make the most hardened Europhobe blush. But the two numbers Haydn completed are worthy of his ripest style: a noble F major bass aria with rich, inventive writing for woodwind, authoritatively sung by Harry van der Kamp (despite a hint of rawness on the top notes), and a D major chorus whose verve and contrapuntal power presage the late Masses and oratorios.

Under Bruno Weil’s spirited direction both the Tolz Boys’ Choir, with their bright-edged, slightly breathy tone, and the crack period orchestra, Tafelmusik, are on first-rate form here and throughout this enterprisingly planned disc. It includes the thrilling, majestic late Te Deum and the motet Insanae et vanae curae, adapted from a ‘storm’ chorus in the oratorio Il ritorno di Tobia and foreshadowing in its D minor apocalyptic grandeur the Mozart of Don Giovanni and the Requiem. Weil’s reading is eagerly responsive to the music’s drama, with taut rhythms, sharp dynamic contrasts and keen instrumental detailing; and he maintains the initial pulse through the tranquil D major sections, where most conductors I’ve heard slow up markedly, to the detriment of structural cohesion. Between these masterpieces the four little Motetti de Venerabili from the 1750s (another recorded first) inevitably sound tame, for all their easy tunefulness and skilful marshalling of rococo cliche.

The largest work on the disc is, of course, the so-called Heiligmesse, first of the six magnificent Mass settings of Haydn’s old age. Like the shorter pieces, this receives an energetic, uplifting reading, with brisk tempos, fresh, incisive choral work (real exhilaration in, say, the closing fugue of the Gloria) and strongly etched orchestral colours (clarinets, trumpets and timpani well in the picture). In one or two sections Weil can drive too hard – the gravely contrapuntal “Gratias”, for instance, which has an inappropriate restlessness (and where Harry van der Kamp sometimes overwhelms the excellent boy soloists). And I would have liked more tender, graceful shaping in the exquisite canonic “Et incarnatus est” (which follows the opening section of the Credo after too short a pause – something I noticed elsewhere in these performances), and the Benedictus, where Weil plays up the march background rather at the expense of the music’s mystery and spirituality. But there is no doubting the vigour and joyfulness of Weil’s reading, nor the skill and commitment of his forces. Quite apart from its pioneering value, this is an inspiriting Haydn collection whose appeal is enhanced by vivid sound and a typically enthusiastic, informative note from the composer’s alter ego, H. C. Robbins Landon.

-- Richard Wigmore, Gramophone [7/1996]

SCHUMANN: SYMPHONY NO. 3 RHENI

HAYDN: SYMPHONIES NOS 88, 89 &

Selections recorded March 27-29 and April 1-3, 1993.

BEETHOVEN: PIANO CONCERTO NO 5

Bruno Walter was getting on in years when he made this classic recording of Barber's First Symphony, but it's the kind of piece that played to Walter's strengths--Romantic but with strongly Classical leanings--and it makes a curiously apt coupling to the two Strauss tone poems. Like the composer's own performances, Walter's are swift and light, which works wonderfully well in Don Juan, a bit less so in Death and Transfiguration, which could use more sheer intensity at the climaxes. Throughout, the playing is lively and comfortably at home in the music. The Dvorák encore is nice to have, but hardly necessary, and it's sonically inferior to the otherwise perfectly fine mono engineering in evidence elsewhere. Now available "on demand" from Arkivmusic.com, this is a disc of genuine historical significance for both Strauss and Barber collectors.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONIES NOS 7, 8

Haydn: Paris Symphonies Nos. 85-87

These performances are also included on Sony's 10-disc set "Bruno Walter
Edition Volume 3" - Sony Classical 66248.

SCHUMANN: FRAUENLIEBE UND LEBE

The Creation is potentially the most life-enhancing work in the choral repertoire but it hasn’t been particularly well served on record, partly because it is difficult to sustain the necessary fervour in studio conditions. Sony has found performers who are both able and willing: Tafelmusik’s playing is predictably immaculate, and the Tölz Boys Choir (with fresh-voiced tenors and basses) is radically more accomplished than many all-male groups.

The big, set-piece choruses are very exciting, though some may find Weil’s speeds shockingly fast, and the impact would have been greater had the balance favoured the choir just a touch more. He is not afraid of greater expression in slower numbers (such as the introduction to Part 3), though on occasion the result is, I fear, too pretty for its own good.

All three soloists have something to offer: Ann Monoyios boasts a light, clear soprano ideally suited to her decorative arias in Parts 1 and 2; Jörg Hering’s warm tenor brings fluent musicality throughout; and Harry van der Kamp’s distinctive low-vibrato bass is deployed with great intelligence.

The overall style of performance is relatively intimate, so it’s a shame that the engineers give us quite so much resonant church acoustic; but the well-articulated German text is never under threat. Anyone not allergic to period-instrument Haydn will find much to enjoy here.

-- Stephen Maddock, BBC Music Magazine

Bruckner: Symphony No. 4, WAB 104 "Romantic"

These performances are also included on Sony's 10-disc set "Bruno Walter
Edition Volume 3" - Sony Classical 66248.

"Sony's new transfer boasts greater definition in the treble and bass, with extra bloom in the strings. What's more, the finale no longer spills over to a second disc, enabling the listener to hear Bruno Walter's Bruckner 7th uninterrupted on one CD...Walter communicates his kinder, gentler vision of this music with love, authority, and conviction." -- Jed Distler

Zino Francescatti never made a better disc than his 1958 coupling of Mozart's Violin Concertos Nos. 3 in G, K216 and 4 in D, K218. The Californian sound is again warm and well balanced and Walter and the Columbia Symphony provide affectionate, immaculately turned accompaniments. The slow movements are slightly romantic in feeling, but agreeably so, and the overall impression is one of freshness combined with the performers' love for the music.

-- Gramophone [8/1995]

Having already enjoyed substantial reissue programmes devoted to Furtwangler, Klemperer and Toscanini, I was delighted to receive the initial instalment of Sony Classical's admirable "Bruno Walter: The Edition", doubly so in view of its superb presentation, exceptional technical quality (the best of Walter's stereo recordings were always remarkably lifelike) and its rich trawl of topdrawer repertory. This particular feast includes two violin concertos: the Beethoven with Szigeti, and the Mendelssohn with Milstein-interpretatively worlds apart but instructive in that Walter's accompaniments reflect (and respect) the very different styles of his two soloists. Then there is a two-CD Wagner compilation [ Sony 64459] that gathers together all the stereo Columbia Symphony material and adds a 45-minute Siegfried Idyll rehearsal, and a magnificent run of Mahler: the NYPO Dos Lied von der Erde (with Ernst Haefliger and Mildred Miller—and in my view one of the most profoundly inspired ever made, certainly in terms of the conducting and orchestral playing [ Sony 64455]), the NYPO Fourth and Fifth Symphonies (from 1945 and 1947, respectively), the Lieder und Gesfinge aus der Jugendzeit (with Desi Halban and Walter at the piano) and the stereo Mahler recordings—the First, Second and Ninth Symphonies (the latter appended with "A Talking Portrait" and "A Working Portrait"), and the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Mildred Miller.

-- Robert Cowan, Gramophone [2/1995]

Haydn: Paris Symphonies Nos. 82-84