Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 9 In D Major (Great Recordings of the Century)
In addition to conducting the first performance of Mahler's Ninth, Bruno Walter also made the first recording of the score, and it is one of the most remarkable phonographic documents of this century. The recording, with an incandescent Vienna Philharmonic on the stage, was made at a concert in the Musikvereinssaal on January 16, 1938. Walter, then 61, and his colleagues, some of whom had played under Mahler, give an overwhelming reading inspired not only by the memory of the composer, but by the grim situation in Europe and Austria at that moment. Here is Mahler on the brink, coming to us from a time when the world itself was on the brink. Listening to the account is like stepping back in time, and can be a chilling experience. The sound is magnificent, with an utterly remarkable depth and presence for a recording more than 50 years old.--Ted Libbey