Bruno
Walter’s CBS/Sony recording of the ‘Resurrection’ symphony
has been one of the top recommendations for the work for
the last five decades, no mean achievement. However, this
performance, newly issued on CD by Music & Arts will
be of great interest to Mahler devotees, and especially
to those who esteem Walter highly as a Mahler conductor.
Its relationship to that long-available commercial recording
is interesting and worthy of comment. In relating the background
I shall draw on Mark Kluge’s exceptionally thorough and
very interesting booklet note for Music & Arts.
In
October 1956 Bruno Walter had announced his intention to
withdraw from regular guest conducting commitments with
the New York Philharmonic. By the time this particular
concert came to be given he was eighty years old and clearly
felt the time had come to wind down a little. The concert
of 17 February 1957, which formed a live afternoon broadcast
on CBS, consisted solely of the Mahler symphony. Linked
to it were recording sessions, during which Walter set
down the fourth and fifth movements of the symphony. He
also undertook various other symphonic and operatic conducting
commitments in New York around this time but on March 9
he suffered a heart attack. His convalescence took some
time and it wasn’t until February 1958 – on 17 and 21 February
to be exact – that he completed the recording of ‘Resurrection’,
by setting down the first three movements.
Collectors
who have the CBS/Sony recording in their collection may
be surprised by the above details as I was myself when
I received the Music & Arts CD, for in the Sony booklet
the dates of that recording are given as 17, 18 and 21
February 1958. However, Mark Kluge has kindly confirmed
to me that the dates he cites in his note are collaborated
by the online Walter
discography,
which supplements the biography of Walter by Erik Ryding
and Rebecca Pechevsky (
Bruno Walter: A World Elsewhere.
Yale University Press, 2001) It would appear that Sony
made a simple – and understandable mistake – by assuming
that Walter had been in the studio on three days in the
same year. This may appear a small point but it’s very
interesting to find that the sessions for this famous recording
were split not just over a period of a year but bisected
by a life-threatening illness.
Having
said all that, I must say that over the years I have listened
to the CBS/Sony in blissful ignorance of the fact that
it was not all recorded in the space of a few days. And,
even armed with this new knowledge, I still think the studio
recording is a fine one and – more importantly in this
context – a consistent one.
In
the section of his magisterial
survey of
the Mahler Symphonies on CD devoted to this symphony Tony
Duggan, while expressing some intellectual reservations
about Walter’s conception of the work, rates his studio
recording highly, describing it as “always required listening”.
Similarly I’d rate Tony’s description of the recorded performance
itself as “required reading.” Really there’s little that
I can usefully add to his description of the way the symphony
unfolds in Walter’s hands and if you aren’t familiar with
Walter’s interpretation and want an excellent guide to
it then I refer you to Tony’s comments.
Much
of what he says about the studio reading applies to this
concert traversal also since, as you’d expect, any interpretative
differences are fairly minor and any such points of difference
surely arose in the heat of the moment during the live
rendition. Mark Kluge draws attention to some differences
in his notes though these may not be a major issue for
most collectors. That said, I don’t think it’s too fanciful
to suggest that there’s more than a degree of greater electricity
in the live performance. No doubt Walter and his players
drew inspiration from the presence of an audience and from
the sheer sense of occasion. It’s a great compliment to
Walter’s musicianship that his studio recording feels like
a complete performance but we
know that this Music & Arts
CD contains a single complete performance and there is
a definite sense of sweep and of cumulative force. One
of the most remarkable things is that an eighty year old
man was capable of sustaining the intensity and drama of
this most theatrical of symphonies. The studio sessions
would have offered him some respite but here, on the concert
platform, apart from a pause between the first and second
movements (though not the five minutes suggested by Mahler),
there was no chance for a break.
I
feel there’s more sense of drama in the live account, especially
in the great funeral march that constitutes the first movement
and in the huge fresco of the finale. There are one or
two slight slips in the playing in the course of the live
performance, but these are very isolated and in no way
detract from the excellence of the performance as a whole.
The last fifteen minutes, in particular, pack much more
of a punch in this live version as the performers seem
to strain at the leash. Small wonder that the New York
audience responds enthusiastically at the end.
One
important difference between the studio and concert recordings
concerns the soprano soloist. Maria Stader sang in the
concert performance but, presumably for contractual reasons,
she was replaced by Emilia Cundari when the studio sessions
took place. Both sopranos are good but I have a slight
preference for Stader’s admirably clear tones. Maureen
Forrester graces both recordings.
As
for the recorded sound, well both recordings took place
in the same venue, Carnegie Hall, though during the studio
sessions the hall would have been empty apart from the
performers and the recording team. As you might expect,
there’s a bit more detail in the studio recording and there
was more opportunity to balance the sound. Mark Kluge makes
a very interesting observation that the “soundstage representation
[on the studio set] however seems overly wide, not an uncommon
situation with early stereo recordings.” He’s also of the
opinion that the studio sound imparts some shrillness to
the violins and has the horns and trombones set a little
backwardly. If you don’t insist on state of the art hi-fi
sound then I think you’ll find the sound offered by Music & Arts
perfectly acceptable.
In
terms of presentation the new release scores over its CBS/Sony
rival in a few ways. Firstly it’s contained on one CD,
so that a disc change isn’t required, as is the case with
the Sony release. On the other hand, the Music & Arts
disc contains inadequately short gaps between the first
two movements and between the second and third movements
so one really needs to use the pause button. A key advantage
of the Music & Arts release lies in the documentation.
Neither set offers the texts of the vocal sections. However,
Mark Kluge’s detailed and excellent booklet essay is meticulously
researched and very readable and is to be preferred to
the Sony notes, though those are pretty good.
To
sum up, if you already have the CBS/Sony CD set then you
can probably rest content – and you’ll have the not insignificant
bonus of Walter’s 1961 recording of the First Symphony
and his 1960 recording, with Mildred Miller, of
Lieder
eines fahrenden Gesellen – all in all, a very
desirable package. However, on balance I’d recommend this
Music & Arts release as the best way to experience
Walter’s interpretation of ‘Resurrection’. It’s a more
dramatic, dynamic and involving account than his studio
version. Furthermore, though this wouldn’t be a reason
for recommending it were the performance itself not good,
it constitutes a small piece of musical history for this
CD preserves for us what I believe was the last complete
performance of the work by the man who was a direct link
to Mahler himself.
John Quinn
Maria
Stader (soprano); Maureen Forrester (contralto) 
