Bruno Walter
Between 1923 and 1961 Walter made hundreds of recordings. The earlier recordings, made at a time when his conducting was at its best, are often rather poor recordings. When he made his last recordings, after stereo records had been invented, he was already quite ill. In his early years he gave some of the first performances of Mahler’s music. He conducted the first performance of Das Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1936 he made the first recording of the same work with the same orchestra which still had the same leader: Arnold Rosé who was Mahler’s brother-in-law. This recording was made just before the Nazi Anschluss which forced Walter and Rosé into exile. Many years later, in 1952, Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic once again made a famous recording of Das Lied von der Erde with the singers Kathleen Ferrier and Julius Patzak. He also recorded Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. Since Walter had worked closely with Mahler, and Mahler had never conducted either of these two great works of his, we can imagine that Walter’s recordings show us how Mahler might have wanted the music to be played.