Bruno Walter Discovers Brahms' Heart!
Allen and Linda Tyler
> Now comes a house sale where I bought a lot of LPs, among them, an old
> Masterworks copy of Brahms' 4th Symphony with Walter and the
> Philharmonic-Symphony of New York.
>
> And I liked it! Walter found a real beating heart there -- the same one
> that throbs in his chamber works.
>
The best I know of. I totally wore out my LP many years ago, and await
a CD release, mono sound and all.
Allen Tyler
John Chacona
Brahms' heart.
Call me a contrarian but, in his symphonic works at least, Brahms struck
me as a fat, satisfied burgher (albeit a smart one), pontificating on a
subject he knew nothing about. He was the smug country club plutocrat
who knows it all.
Now comes a house sale where I bought a lot of LPs, among them, an old
Masterworks copy of Brahms' 4th Symphony with Walter and the
Philharmonic-Symphony of New York.
And I liked it! Walter found a real beating heart there -- the same one
that throbs in his chamber works.
I know about the Columbia Symphony set and I'll probably buy it (though
I have a nice No. 2 on LP). But I kinda like the dim mono sound of the
older set -- very evocative and warm. It's part of the effect. Is this
set available on CD (Music & Arts, maybe)? How does it compare to the
California set?
E-mail preferred as I don't read this board as often as I'd like.
JC
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Erie & Chautauqua Magazine 814.455.3794 (f)
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John Harkness
John
John Chacona wrote:
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Sacqueboutier
>
> John Chacona wrote:
>
> > Now comes a house sale where I bought a lot of LPs, among them, an old
> > Masterworks copy of Brahms' 4th Symphony with Walter and the
> > Philharmonic-Symphony of New York.
> >
> > And I liked it! Walter found a real beating heart there -- the same one
> > that throbs in his chamber works.
> >
> a CD release, mono sound and all.
> Allen Tyler
I've heard rumor that these are slated for Sony Masterworks Heritage
treatment soon.
--
Don Patterson
* DCP Music Printing
* Professional Computer Music Typeset
* Music Arrangements
* don...@erols.com
* Asst. Principal Trombonist
* "The President's Own"
* United States Marine Band
http://www.marineband.hqmc.usmc.mil
The views expressed are my own and in no way
reflect those of "The President's Own" United
States Marine Band or the United States Marine Corps.
Marc Perman
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>
>Well, I didn't think it was possible, but Bruno Walter found it:
>Brahms' heart.
>
>Call me a contrarian but, in his symphonic works at least, Brahms struck
>me as a fat, satisfied burgher (albeit a smart one), pontificating on a
>subject he knew nothing about. He was the smug country club plutocrat
>who knows it all.
Glad you finally found some orchestral Brahms that appeals to you. I
personally find the symphonies to be an astonishing combination of
late romanticism and classicism - the greatest works of the 19th c.
after Beethoven - and there are many, many great versions of each of
them.
Marc Perman
cupahgne yes
Marc Perman <per...@mindspring.com> wrote in article
<3679ba9...@news.mindspring.com>...
Wait till he hears the way Bruno does the Variations on a theme by Haydn !
JHOLLIS517
currently avilable other than Sony or Music and Arts society recordings.
From what I have seen of Sony, is that they do one pressing of some of these
releases and that is it. Case in point being a mono Beethoven's 9th that was
gone practically before the catalog hit th streets.
DAinLA
> I've heard rumor that these are slated for Sony Masterworks Heritage
> treatment soon.
>
> --
>
> Don Patterson
Are we talking about Walter's 30's recordings? I've seen a set cutout on
some Italian label at a Tower outlet... are they great? (I'm already a
Walter/Brahms fan...) DA
Sacqueboutier
I'm not sure of the date as I only learned of the earlier
mono set within the last few years. I was familiar with
only the stereo set from California. I have heard that the
NYP mono set is slated for Sony MH issue.
Allen and Linda Tyler
>
> >
> > I've heard rumor that these are slated for Sony Masterworks Heritage
> > treatment soon.
> >
> > --
> >
> > Don Patterson
>
> Are we talking about Walter's 30's recordings? I've seen a set cutout on
> some Italian label at a Tower outlet... are they great? (I'm already a
> Walter/Brahms fan...) DA
as opposed to the cut masters of 30s recordings. I'm sure Walter/Brahms
from the 30s would also be very good, but not as good sound quality as
the 50s.
Allen Tyler
Chuck Nessa
discussion.
CN
A. F. T.
<jcha...@reporters.net> wrote:
>Well, I didn't think it was possible, but Bruno Walter found it:
>Brahms' heart...I know about the Columbia Symphony set and I'll probably buy it (though
>I have a nice No. 2 on LP). But I kinda like the dim mono sound of the
>older set -- very evocative and warm. It's part of the effect. Is this
>set available on CD...? How does it compare to the
>California set?
>E-mail preferred as I don't read this board as often as I'd like.
>JC
The Robert Prentiss BRUNO WALTER DISCOGRAPHY website is "temporarily
out of service" at its URL of
<http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~ifcr450/walter/index.html>
but I reviewed the Walter Brahms recordings for that site last year,
and sent the following comments (this gives me the opportunity of
changing some opinions that I have since revised):
BRAHMS: Four Symphonies + Orchestral Music
Columbia Sym/Bruno Walter
In the numerous recordings of Brahms by Dr. Walter, dating from 1934
to 1960 during the final years of his career, are to be found some of
his greatest interpretative achievements.
During the fifties and sixties, American record collectors largely
considered Walter to "own" the symphonies. First, they were brought
out by Columbia in a deluxe mono LP edition, sporting notes by Neville
Cardus, and containing powerful and spirited readings by the
Philharmonic-Symphony of New York, taken down from 1951 through 1953
(the exact period of years during which Walter's "competitor" Arturo
Toscanini recorded them with the NBC Symphony for RCA Victor.) In
addition to the symphonies, Columbia Masterworks also provided
performances of four Hungarian Dances, the Haydn Variations,
the Academic Festival Overture, the Tragic Overture, and the Double
Concerto (this in 1954, featuring Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose,
reviewed elsewhere.)
The sound varied from being somewhat distant and blended (Fourth Sym,
Double Concerto, Academic Festival Overture) to forceful brilliance,
"hi fi" by any standards (Third Symphony, Tragic Overture, and
Hungarian Dances.)
The stereo LP era brought Dr. Walter's final thoughts about the
symphonies, as well as valedictory readings of the overtures and
Double Concerto (this time, with Francescatti and Fournier, even
surpassing the stellar American artists of the earlier version.) As
regards the symphonies, this writer finds an odd coincidence that in
individual performances, where one set excels, the other fails.
For example, the First Symphony interpretation of 1953 with the PSNY
is thoroughly youthful, vigorous, and passionate, while the 1959
stereo remake is massive and occasionally somewhat ponderous and
stolid. The coda of 1953 is aggressive, swift, and uplifting; the
comparable finale from 1959 has no energy or acceleration. Yet this
last of his three recordings of the work is saved due to the sweetness
of Walter's phrasing, and his rapture and reverence in quieter
moments. The 1937 edition originally on 78s with the
Vienna Philharmonic is outclassed by both of the Columbia tapings.
Like many of Walter's commercial 78s of the 1930s, the set suffers
from unsustained tension and pacing, since it was conceived and
accomplished as a series of individual four-minute record sides: there
are some noticeable letdowns at certain transition points between
disks, which is also evident in the 1934 Gieseking/VPO/Walter
"Emperor" concerto recording. To more accurately judge Walter's
accomplishments with the VPO of the 1930s, one should hear the
instead the live concert recordings of the Mahler "Das Lied von der
Erde" and Ninth Symphony.
In the Brahms Second Symphony, recorded commercially only twice by
Walter ('52 and '60), one greatly prefers the stereo remake, one of
the most glorious and cantabile readings of any work left to posterity
by the conductor. Those of us who were not privileged to see this
great artist at work in live concerts will be mesmerized by his
simple, gentle, but insistent urgings in a rehearsal snippet of the
opening of the D Major symphony with an orchestra in Vancouver
(provided in the EMI videotape "The Art of Conducting".)
One hears at once how the great maestro achieves the luminous texture
and singing line by the most sparing gestures and a only few modest
words of instruction.
The PSNY reading is somewhat forced; the best LP transfer (the
original Columbia Masterworks mono edition, NOT the very compressed
and nasty-toned American Columbia Odyssey reissue of the early 1960s)
still does not have ideally clear transparency, with the microphones
too distant and the sound hollow and poorly defined. The Columbia
Symphony stereo edition is all that could be desired, and has always
sounded very good: on the original Masterworks stereo LP, the Odyssey
long play and cassette reissue, and now on the glorious Sony Walter
series CD edition. If one likes this "ripe" and somewhat refulgent
acoustic, then the vigor of the performance will be irresistible.
Sadly Walter eschews the first-movement exposition repeat,
which is utilized to great effect by Sir Adrian Boult in his exquisite
late stereo version on EMI; yet Walter urges his players on with more
emphasis and power than the patrician and stately Briton. Surely the
Walter Brahms 2nd will long continue to be regarded as a phonographic
classic.
[NOTE: Subsequent to this review, I obtained the rare edition of the
1955 live Orchestre National de France performance of the D-Major
symphony, on Disques Montaignes TCE 8831: the sound is excellent, hi
fi, and crisp genuine mono (in a very dead hall) and the reading is
vigorous and ardent, combining the virtues of the rugged NY Phil
performance with the spaciousness and sweetness of the later CSO
version. I recently found my copy of the 1964 HIGH FIDELITY Magazine
overview of Walter's recordings by Robert C. Marsh: he said of the
commercial versions of the D-Major: "Here there is slight basis for
argument. The New York version is not especially well recorded (there
is far too much reverberation), and the performance is overly tense."
I certainly would agree, ranking perhaps the 1955 version first of
all, followed by the CSO and NYP in that order.]
The Third Symphony was recorded first by Walter in 1936, when he was
music director of the Vienna Philharmonic. The HMV/RCA Victor 78 rpm
pressings were typical of their period, preserving a "stringy" and
somewhat anemic body in a billowy acoustic, with little high frequency
detail and muddy lows lacking body and definition. The performance
seemed oddly unsatisfying to this listener, and had more angst and
less energy than Dr. Walter's later versions.
[Some months after posting these comments, based on my long-time
reaction to my own copy on Odeon LP, obtained in the early sixties, I
obtained the Koch CD transfer, now deleted, by Mark Obert-Thorn. The
sound was such a revelation, removing layers of filtered and strangled
coloration on the Odeon, that I could at last enjoy the performance,
and have re-evaluated it. Mark's transfer is remarkable, and is
real-sounding and full-bodied, and like the BBC Fourth that
accompanies it, makes a fine case for the interpretation, which stands
revealed in a clarity that I doubt that was evident in most playings
of the raw 78's! I found it completely enjoyable, and satisfying as
an artifact of European recording techniques of the 30's.]
The 1953 PSNY reading was totally uncharacteristic of Walter's
commercial recordings: the opening of the symphony erupts in an almost
crazily propulsive manner, with far too much forward momentum, not
sustained throughout the convulsive first movement; nor indeed is
there a consistency of pacing through the entirety of this restless
performance. On the original Columbia Masterworks LP edition, the
symphony was fully contained on side one, and played for a duration of
only about 35 minutes, though the sound was exceptionally crisp,
clear, and brilliant. [Robert C. Marsh wrote in 1964 of the three
Walter sets, "The New York Philharmonic version has more vigor and
drama than the other two, and I prefer it on those grounds."]
Sadly, the 1960s-vintage Columbia Odyssey mono reissue (a 3-LP set
that compressed all 4 symphonies on too few sides) had severe peak
limiting that vitiated the climaxes; in addition, the high frequencies
were wavery as if the original full-track tapes were not in good
condition or were improperly dubbed. The Third Symphony suffered the
most, since its sound was so exceptionally good in the prior
Masterworks LP incarnation.
With the great interpretation recorded in stereo in January, 1960,
Walter provided his final -- and sanest -- view of the work, in a
glowing reading that is smooth, relaxed, and deeply expressive. There
is power in the tragic moments, and repose and insight in the pensive
ones. The reading has always struck this writer as the Empyrean
ideal...if one does not demand all the pertinent repeats. Toscanini
provided them in his expansive and relaxed live broadcast of November
1, 1952, never issued in LP or CD formats. Sadly, when he attempted
to recreate this amazing interpretation before the RCA Victor
microphones on November 4, the Italian maestro "tensed up", and the
reading failed to gel into a cohesive picture of the moods of the
whole work.
But the Walter stereo recording is available for us to cherish. None
of the other great Brahms interpreters -- not Furtwaengler, Boult,
Weingartner, Klemperer, nor even the newest revisionist Mackerras --
has surpassed for this writer what Walter has achieved in this
composition, though the fairly recent Gunter Wand reading (with
repeats) almost achieves the wisdom and serenity of Walter [and as I
subsequently found, the classic Living Stereo release by Reiner and
the Chicago Symphony has a broad, central European performance -- sans
first movement repeat -- with plenty of sinew and drama.]
In the Fourth Symphony, one of the greatest such works of any composer
(even acceptable to such Brahms-haters as B. H. Haggin and Robert C.
Marsh), Walter seems to have come a cropper as he did in the Beethoven
Ninth.
The 1934 BBC Symhony effort for His Master's Voice may be quickly
dismissed: it is scratchy, scrambling, and unpolished, and fails to
probe the enormous depths of the piece.
[That comment of mine was made in recalling the puny effect of the
shellac set as well as the inadequate Camden and Turnabout LP
transfers; when I heard later the Mark Obert-Thorn transfer on a
deleted Koch CD, with the VPO Third, I changed my mind: now I think
the reading has real majesty and power, with tolerably decent
execution and an 'old sounding' yet powerful recording, with plenty of
low-frequency underpinning. It is quite astounding to realize that my
former distaste was due to the transfer quality, and NOT due to the
performance itself! Thanks, MO-T, for your revelatory refurbishment!]
The 1951 PSNY commercial recording is serious, sombre, and measured,
with some energy in the first and third movements, but vitiated by a
blowsy recording lacking in transparency.
The stereo remake dating from 1959 is deeply flawed. The first and
fourth movements are marred by a start-and-stop episodic jerkiness, a
lack of strength and tension, and ponderous tempi. The second and
third movements are more successful, but are distinctly low voltage,
at least compared to the greater enthusiasm evident in Walter's stereo
versions of the Second and Third Symphonies. Chalk this one up to a
not-totally-inspired day in the studio (a fate also suffered by the
Walter/Columbia Symphony stereo edition of the Schubert Ninth, another
specialty of the conductor.)
However, listeners who are put off by the "powerhouse" readings of
Toscanini, Solti, or Carlos Kleiber (or by the crazy accelerando at
the finale of Furtwaengler's Brahms Fourth) may find the Walter
interpretation more comfortable and soulful.
[Marsh writes of the 1960 Fourth: "The BBC Symphony recording sounds
as if it had been personally made by Thomas Edison. Only a dim echo
of what was obviously a very fine performance comes through, but there
is enough of the final movement to be heard to make clear the degree
to which Walter later changed his interpretation...If I had to pick
one of the three, it would be the Philharmonic set."]
The Walter versions of the short Brahms works may be briefly
summarized:
The Academic Festival Overture is best heard in the spectacular 1960
stereo edition, far surpassing the 1937 VPO and 1951 PSNY monaural
recordings. Walter's jaunty phrasing in the opening has to be heard
to be believed! His final "Gaudeamus Igitur" has all the festivity
and ceremony implicit in the work, expressed in an ideal balance of
drama, energy, and lyricism.
The Tragic Overture is best served by the great 1953 interpretation of
the PSNY, though the stereo edition from January, 1960 has towering
grandeur if not as much culminating power. To this writer, the Walter
recordings -- and the great, deeply-inflected live Toscanini broadcast
of 1953 -- have the full measure of the overture, and are preferable
to the asceticism of Klemperer or Szell.
The Haydn Variations were well done in both the PSNY mono and the
Columbia Symphony stereo versions, though the outstanding Philharmonic
strings out-point the Columbia Symphony players at key moments. Only
the great 1936 Toscanini/PSNY recording for RCA Victor (now a BMG CD)
provides playing of the same stature by the famous ensemble. Another
notable performance, if one is lucky enough to be able to obtain the
deleted recording, is the June 20, 1950 concert reading by
Furtwaengler and the BPO, on an out-of-print DGG CD containing also
the First Symphony (427 402-2), in a transfer that is preferable to
other editions. There is a greater extreme of tempo variety compared
to the straightforward style of Bruno Walter, coupled with the same
sense of exultation in the final variation.
[I had not yet heard the Sony Masterworks Heritage transfer of the '53
Walter, and to date have not yet audited it, remembering only the old
LP edition in the Columbia Brahms package.]
The Hungarian Dances Nos. 1, 2, 10, and 17 were done with exquisite
loving care in the beautifully-recorded 1951 mono edition by the PSNY,
leaving one craving more! Walter offers a more genial and
characteristic central European style, compared to the bustling and
explosive Toscanini recording from the early '50s.
One word of warning must be added with regard to CD transfers of the
Brahms symphony cycle by the PSNY: the Theorema set is a "bootleg"
recording made without the collaboration of Columbia, and as such is
not from original source tapes but made from LPs. To judge from other
Theorema productions, one assumes that there is also false
stereotizing and surface noise, plus a certain loss of the quality of
the best original Masterworks LPs. This writer will not willingly
purchase any Theorema product, preferring to wait for an authorized
Columbia/Sony production.
A FANATICAL TOSCANINIPHILE
"Ignorance is bliss: use a killfile & add to it every day!"
-- Corno di Bassetto
Curtis Croulet
With regard to the present topic -- I have two copies of the PSNY Brahms 2nd
on Columbia ML 5125, and the sound is muffled and distorted on both, not
even close to the other symphonies in the series. I'll be most interested
to hear this in the rumored Masterworks Heritage reissue. Regarding the
Brahms 4th -- although you consider the Columbia SO Brahms 4th to be "deeply
flawed," "ponderous," etc. (I don't -- I think it's one of the very greatest
versions, right up there with Toscanini 1951), it's worth noting that the
1st movement is quicker than most recent recordings, other than the HIP
group.