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MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 in D minor.
Vienna Philharmonic Orch/Bruno Walter, cond.
NAXOS 8.110852 (B) (ADD) TT: 70:43
These historic performances have been issued often before - but in these
new transfers by Mark Obert-Thorne they sound better than ever. Das
Lied, recorded during a live
concert May 24, 1936, was the first recording of the work, which the
conductor had premiered a quarter of a century earlier, a year after the
composer's death. There is a bit of a question about the
matrices; MOT states there might have been two performances recorded
by Columbia - why else would there be sides identified as "take two" if
there was but one performance? The same applies to the Symphony; perhaps
there were two performances of that, too - but it doesn't really
matter.
Walter would make two later recordings of Das Lied,
in 1952 for Decca with Kathleen Ferrier, Julius Patzak and the VPO, and
in 1960 for Columbia with the New York Philharmonic, Mildred Miller and
Ernst Haefliger as soloists. There also exists a special NYP issue
of a 1948 performance with Walter, Ferrier and Set Svanholm, an occasion
that represented the distinguished contralto's American debut.
However the first two recordings are the finest. This
issue of the 1936 performance is of particular interest as it also
contains the Rźckert Lieder except from the same concert as well as the
Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony, recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic
May 24, 1936. Mengelberg was the first to record the latter, a decade
earlier, a performance that takes about 7 minutes, Walter takes
about a minute longer, and Mahler's own apparently took about 9 minutes -
as contrasted to 10 - 13 minutes in most recordings of the past three
decades. Towards the end of the Adagietto, just before the
return of Tempo I (5:40 in this new issue) the score indicates a unison glissando for
violins and violas, from high D-natural to middle-C, marked "ppp." It's
virtually inaudible in Walter's performance; Mengelberg makes much of
it as do most conductors - it is, indeed, a magic moment.
The 1936 live recording is superb. Charles Kullman
is a bit taxed by the music, but Kirsten Thorborg is totally in
control. You can hear her live performance of October 5, 1939 with
the Concertgebouw under Carl Schuricht in which she is partnered by Carl
Martin …hmann, who is magnificent in his Melchiorish power. As for
the Mahler Ninth recorded live January 16, 1938, it is one of the sublime
statements of the music, essential in every Mahler collection. Hats
off to all concerned in these two major budget-priced reissues!
