Along with Mozart, Beethoven and Mahler, Brahms was one of the cornerstones of Bruno Walter’s repertoire.  Yet it was not until 1934, twelve years into his recording career, that Walter made his first Brahms discs.  The Fourth Symphony was recorded when Walter was guest conducting in London.  Two years would pass before Walter would record his next Brahms, the Third Symphony, this time with “his” Vienna Philharmonic.  The following year would see the recording of both the First Symphony and the Academic Festival Overture, again in Vienna.

The intervention of the Nazis and war in Europe left the Second unrecorded at the time, but Mark Obert-Thorn has drawn on a live NBC Symphony broadcast performance to complete this, Walter's first complete symphony cycle. An absolute must!

• BRAHMS Symphonies 1-4
• BRAHMS Academic Festival Overture (bonus download track)

"The Metropolitan Opera season has produced the debut of a soprano, Joan Sutherland, of Australia, who is almost unimaginably good. Resultantly, the Sunday night audience went nearly berserk with delight during and after the climaxing mad scene in "Lucia de Lammermoor." Although explosions of enthusiasm are familiar enough, though never common, at the Met nothing comparable is recalled in recent times. There wasn't applause but wild beatings of palms; not bravos but roars of exultant appreciation. There were 10 genuine, unforced, prolonged solo curtain calls. At the sixth the examples of a few who were standing became the complete audience."- Variety

Presented here in superb XR-remastered Ambient Stereo from fabulous new transfers of the broadcast performance of 9 December, 1961, this is an unmissable treat for all opera-lovers.

"The overwhelming performance of the evening for this writer was that of the Chopin Fantasy. We have never heard the introductory pages presented with so much imagination — the treading march in the bass, answered by the wraith-like harmonies, as if the ancestral spirits of long ago haunted the halls of the past. The molten passion of the fast movements was held magnificently in hand. The prayer that divides the dramatic pages was played with an unearthly effect, and the whisper of a pianissimo — the movement of suspense which culminates this passage — made the more startling the explosion which disperses that mood and sweeps furiously to the conclusion. With all this torrent of feeling, Mr. Horowitz maintained a classic power and balance. The interpretation of a great master!" - The New York Times

The complete, previously unissued Carnegie Hall concert recital of 2 February 1948 in superb sound from Horowitz's own private disc recordings. A fantastic treasure you really must hear!

Music by Haydn, Schubert, Scriabin, Kabalevsky, Chopin, Scarlatti, Moszkowski, Schumann, Liszt-Horowitz