Walter's 1939 M1 w/NBC

[Russell]

Found this great post on a Music & Arts CD of a Bruno Walter concert from 1939 featuring the M1.  I'm gonna have to try this!

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/music/messages/18/189105.html

Russell

[James Meckley]

Found this great post on a Music & Arts CD of a Bruno Walter concert from 1939 featuring the M1.  I'm gonna have to try this!

Hi Russell,

I have this CD; there's no doubt it's a rambunctious and thrilling performance in surprisingly good sound—transferred by the estimable Aaron Z. Snyder—and the playing is remarkable. I think you'll enjoy it, but do be sure to get the 2010 Music & Arts version mentioned. The earlier release on Instituto Discografico Italiano (2002) is an execrable transfer, typical of that label.

This raises a question about Bruno Walter's Mahler 1 recordings—all of them. Why did he never execute the 43-bar repeat at the beginning of the second movement? It's less than a minute of music and he skipped it both in live concerts and in recording sessions.

James

[mike bosworth]

In both the 1893 "Hamburg" and 1894 "Weimar" scores of Mahler 1 (the only two performances in which it carried the name "Titan"), this repeat is not included (I am not sure about the so-called "Budapest" manuscript that was used at the performance at the New England Conservatory the other day). 

The Weimar score (a copyist's manuscript with annotations by Mahler) was later found in Bruno Walter's personal collection, and it is now at the NY Public Library.  Perhaps Walter's study of this manuscript and/or a related discussion with Mahler led to his preference to ignore the repeat in later performances and recordings?

Mike Bosworth

This raises a question about Bruno Walter's Mahler 1 recordings—all of them. Why did he never execute the 43-bar repeat at the beginning of the second movement? It's less than a minute of music and he skipped it both in live concerts and in recording sessions.