For those interested the Canadian Immortal Performances label has just issued rare Bruno Walter recordings including a 1948 NY Phil Mahler 2. Text is in English as was the trend in those days under the shadow of WW2. Henry Fogel in Fanfare writes that this “seems to me to be by far Walter’s most dramatic and fiery Mahler Second performance to survive.”
There is a powerful 1942 Walter NY Phil 2 on Music and Arts and another 1948 Vienna performance on an out of print Andante box that includes the live DLvdE with Ferrier and Patzak from 1952, the day before the famous Decca/London recording.
Maybe not for everyone’s taste but a healthy reminder of the long history of Mahler performances before the Bernstein era. And at least six conductors who worked with Mahler directly all with different approaches.
With clear, low distortion reproducing equipment there is notable detail as well as overall performance preserved in good historic recordings.
