WALTER Complete Brahms Symphonies (1934-1940) - PASC512

While Bruno Walter’s historic studio recordings of three Brahms symphonies have not lacked for past reissues, to my knowledge on only one previous occasion were they assembled into a single set, and that was on a set of Bruno Walter Society LPs, where the slot for Symphony No. 2 was filled instead by a 1955 broadcast performance with a French orchestra (released on CD by the now regrettably defunct Tahra label). Doubtless this was due to not having all four symphonies in studio recordings to make a handsomely filled two-CD set, unlike with Felix Weingartner, whose traversal was completed before the disastrous outbreak of World War II. Also unlike Weingartner, Walter lived into an era where he did make two subsequent complete cycles for LP, in mono with the New York Philharmonic and in stereo with the Columbia Symphony. Instead, Nos. 1 and 3, and 3 and 4, though not 1 and 4, have variously been paired together in issues on the Koch, Opus Kura, and EMI Japan labels, with each symphony also enjoying individual releases paired with works by other composers. Consequently, this release fills a real gap in the catalog of historic reissues—especially since for the Symphony No. 2 it includes a scarce broadcast performance that is contemporaneous with the three studio recordings and which has previously surfaced only on two ultra-rare and long out of print Japanese labels, Eklipse and Serenade. While sonically the studio recordings have been well served by previous issues—most recently the Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 on the Opus Kura release that I just reviewed in 41:1—remastering wizard Mark Obert-Thorn has once again managed to surpass past competition (including his own previous remastering for Koch of Nos. 3 and 4) and elicit that extra degree of clarity, warmth, and instrumental color with a corresponding slight lessening of background surface noise.

While both sonically and interpretively my first choice for a Brahms symphony cycle by Walter would be either the 1951–53 studio cycle or the live 1951 cycle also released by Pristine Audio (see my review in 40:6 and 2017 Want List), these performances are also real treasures. While not having quite the febrile tension of the New York versions, the Vienna Philharmonic recordings of Nos. 1 and 3 from 1936 and 1937 (the latter having significantly quieter surfaces) have the splendid glow of that orchestra’s distinctive orchestral palette, with shimmering strings, tangy woodwinds, and rich but never blaring brass. And, of course, there is the equally unique sense of Gemütlichkeit throughout the proceedings, with unbuttoned lyricism and endearingly characterful but never arch portamento, rubato, and Luftpausen, while the ever-tricky cascading string figurations in the finale of No. 3 have never sounded so effortless and natural. Listening to the wonderful sense of relaxed enjoyment throughout these proceedings, it still seems unfathomable that, only months after the Symphony No. 1 was recorded, Vienna would be engulfed in the Nazi maelstrom.

For its part, the Symphony No. 4 was set down earlier, in 1934 with the BBC Symphony, then only four years old and enjoying its dynamic first phase under Adrian Boult, with whom Walter enjoyed warm relations. If the first movement is a bit rhythmically stiff in the alternating two-note dipping and rising string figures, the playing is always secure and well balanced, and blossoms in the following Andante moderato, with lovely clarinets though a slightly squawky oboe. The Scherzo is rendered with energetic bustle, and if the finale lacks the degree of weighty implacability which Furtwängler could bring to bear it is still effective in its own right.

The NBC Symphony performance of the Symphony No. 2 was part of two series of guest engagements that Walter had with the orchestra during 1939 and 1940. (He would conduct it again in 1951, and once in 1957 as the “Symphony of the Air” for the concert memorializing Toscanini upon his death.) While there is no doubt that this is Toscanini’s orchestra in terms of its razor-sharp discipline of instrumental attack and the less warm, more astringent, treble-oriented sound (magnified of course by the notorious Studio 8H acoustics), Walter nevertheless succeeds in imprinting his own interpretive stamp on the proceedings in the singing line. As is so often the case, a pre-1957 recording by Walter puts paid to the notion held by some familiar with only his final stereo recordings of a conductor given to relaxed, leisurely performances. Here there is surging forward momentum and vibrant, arresting tension as well as ardent songfulness, and as always a totally masterful command of the composer’s idiom. Obert-Thorn has not only obtained superior sound from his original sources here, but also imparted some degree of natural-sounding warmth to the proceedings as well that is a pleasure to hear.

As a bonus, a free download is available to purchasers of this set of Walter’s 1937 recording of the Academic Festival Overture with the Vienna Philharmonic, a classic account made in conjunction with the Third Symphony. It’s too bad that the time limit of 79:57 for producing CD-Rs prevented that from being squeezed onto one of the discs with a resulting total timing of about 81 minutes, but that’s the way the megabytes crumble. For collectors of historic recordings, this release is indispensable; urgently recommended, and an early candidate for the 2018 Want List. James A. Altena