Mahler: Symphony No. 9 & Rehearsal
It was to Bruno Walter that Mahler entrusted the score of his Ninth Symphony in the autumn of 1910, knowing that he himself would not live to conduct the premiere. Walter gave the premiere on June 26, 1912, in Vienna, and throughout his long career remained the work's greatest champion. He was 84 when he made this recording, and the reading he elicits from the Columbia Symphony is suffused with nostalgia, warmth, and deep sentiment. Here, a work of leave-taking is interpreted in the spirit of leave-taking, though the treatment is no less radiant and sincere for being somewhat detached. Disc 1 of this two-CD set contains two bonus tracks: an interview in which Walter discusses music with Arnold Michaelis and a rehearsal sequence narrated by producer John McClure. As McClure points out, Walter still carried inside of him the physical memories of 50 years earlier, when he had premiered the symphony--despite repeated pleas from the control room, he could not keep himself from stamping his foot on the upbeat to the string entrance 17 seconds into the second-movementLändler, which comes through brilliantly on the recording. It was after all a dance, and Walter felt it that way, just as Mahler would have.--Ted Libbey