# Mahler 9: Walter/VPO



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

In case anyone is interested, I just posted my transfer of Mahler's 9th by Walter and the VPO shortly before the Nazis overtook Austria. This transfer was made from original 78rpm shellac disks using some of the techniques I was experimenting with for digital sound restoration.

Mahler Symphony No 9: Bruno Walter/VPO 1938
http://www.vintageip.com/xfers/mahler9walter1938.mp3


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Thanks! The recording sounds good to me. 

Interesting; Walter isn't as self-indulgent in this piece later conductors have become.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

It's a live performance and the orchestra is a little scrappy at first, but it gets very good fast. It's interesting... a lot of reviews of other transfers of this comment on all the coughs in the beginning, but in my transfer they aren't intrusive. I'm guessing most transfers of this have the compression cranked up and those small sounds become prominent.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

My hearing if far from good, but what I can hear of this sounds muffled. I suspect I need the surface noise to feed my imagination.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

At the one minute mark, a woman brought up a chunk, thought better of it, and swallowed.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Manxfeeder said:


> Thanks! The recording sounds good to me.
> 
> Interesting; Walter isn't as self-indulgent in this piece later conductors have become.


Walter's was the only recording, until Scherchen came along twelve years later with the same band in the same venue, with almost the same TT.

I think Herman blows Bruno out of the water. As do eventually atleast several others.

FYI some enterprising YT soul has apparently put five M9s back to back to back to back to back. I didn't listen to them all. Enjoy!






Related:

http://gustavmahler.net.free.fr/symph9.html


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

I recently posted my thoughts on this recording (available on a reissue from Dutton Labs).










I've been fleshing out my collection of Mahler recently. For quite some time I've long had every symphony by him, and multiple or alternative recordings of most of his song cycles (with perhaps 8 or 9 different recordings of _Das Lied von der Erde_). But when it has come to the symphonies I have long had but a single recording of the majority of these these. As Mahler's grown in my esteem I've found myself wanting to explore alternative recordings... especially of my favorite symphonies.

In this instance the recording is of a live performance by Bruno Walter with the Vienna Phiharmonic performing in Vienna in 1938. This particular recording has great historical worth. Bruno Walter was Mahler's assistant and assumed the podium after the composer stepped down. Over the years he had made extensive notes concerning Mahler's intentions with regard to how the music should be played. The Ninth Symphony was actually dedicated by Mahler to Bruno Walter who gave this symphony its first performance a year after Mahler's death.

This performance was the swansong of the Vienna Philharmonic under their great conductor, Walter. A few weeks after this recording, Walter showed up as a bewildered refugee in Paris. A few weeks after that the Germans annexed Austria in the infamous _Anschluss_ and there was no chance of hearing Mahler performed by the Vienna Philharmonic again until the end of the war.

The sound on this recording is surprisingly good considering both the date of the recording and the fact that it was recorded live. Of course Dutton was famous for the quality of its recordings. While the sound can be a bit "sharp" at times, there is a real sense of depth to the orchestra... something quite rare in orchestral recordings prior to the 1950s. The performance itself is edgy, tense, and laden with emotion.

I would not choose this recording as my sole recording of the 9th... but it is a fabulous musical document.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

I have heard the earlier EMI reissue on cd of this recording. I like Maestro Walter's no nonsense approach. No need to lay on emotion with a trowel when this is one of the most emotionally charged symphonies in the canon. I like his sense of restraint, which is also apparent in his interpretations of Bruckner. I dislike conductors souping the emotions in this work up. For me, it has to be done simply and eloquently, as here. Maybe it's partly due to how he does it much quicker than the standard length. I was able to hear this work live last year in the Mahler centenary festival, and in the live performance (done to standard 85 minute timing), I did not notice a huge difference in the vibe of that compared to Walter's performance, obviously he still _got_ the vibe of the work whilst still doing it much faster than usual.

I'm not a huge fan of dark works like this, but Walter's straightforward approach to it made it more kind of palatable for me than usual, less draining, etc.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Both lyrical and the more dynamic readings are valid in my view. 

Regarding the former, though I appreciate Walter's historical document and his personal Mahler association, I would much rather listen to Bertini and Kubelik.

I can wish Walter had applied the force he applied to Bruckner 9, to Mahler 9, but that would have taken him totally out of the Mahler lyrical world, and that wouldn't be fair.

It is good that we're discussing Walter's centrist view of Mahler, since for so many years his M9 was considered powerful in all respects. We can hear now that the power was of a more subtle nature.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Dutton does a LOT of digital manipulation. EMI can be good when they have the original metal parts, not so well when they don't.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

bigshot said:


> In case anyone is interested, I just posted my transfer of Mahler's 9th by Walter and the VPO shortly before the Nazis overtook Austria. This transfer was made from original 78rpm shellac disks using some of the techniques I was experimenting with for digital sound restoration.
> 
> Mahler Symphony No 9: Bruno Walter/VPO 1938
> http://www.vintageip.com/xfers/mahler9walter1938.mp3


Bruno Walter was very close to Mahler and his performances are the real thing. Horrenstein also, scandalously neglected,The hysterical type performances of Mahler were of course invented by Bernstein and are to me almost unlistenable.
Kubelik is excellent also but I know nothing of Bertini, it was Mengelberg who kept the Mahler flag flying for a long whole in Holland. That's why the Concertgebouw orchestra has such a good Mahler reputation.


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