{"product_id":"pasc778-cd","title":"WALTER Bruckner: Symphony No. 9, Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York (1946) - PASC778 - CD","description":"overviewfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 24px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBRUCKNER\u003c\/b\u003e Symphony No. 9 in D minor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003eLive broadcast, Carnegie Hall, New York, 17 March 1946\u003cbr\u003eTotal duration: 53:43\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ePhilharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003econducted by \u003cb\u003eBruno Walter\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14px;\"\u003eAmbient Stereo XR remastering by Andrew Rose\u003cbr\u003eIncludes the original radio introduction and conclusion\u003cbr\u003e1 CD\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_titlefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_quotefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9review_bodyfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9main_samplefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fsamples\/PASC778.mp3578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fProducer's Note578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcontent578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003eBruno Walter's Bruckner Ninth from Carnegie Hall on 17 March 1946 preserves a performance from a time when the symphony's greatness was still a matter of argument. The New York critics had heard him conduct it three days earlier. Their reports offer an unusually vivid setting for the Sunday broadcast, revealing both the resistance Bruckner continued to encounter and the persuasive power of one of his most devoted interpreters. Broadcast by CBS, the Sunday concert carried this interpretation far beyond the Carnegie Hall audience.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e provided the sharpest dissent. Its reviewer dismissed the Ninth as 'a weak symphony by an exhausted composer', while acknowledging the beauty of the Adagio, the vitality of the Scherzo and Walter's devoted conducting from memory. Robert A. Simon, writing in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, reached a strikingly different conclusion about the occasion, describing 'one of his most memorable performances'. Even a listener uncertain of the work's stature could recognise the distinction of Walter's advocacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOther witnesses were more enthusiastic still. Louis Biancolli in the \u003ci\u003eWorld Telegram\u003c\/i\u003e admired the original score's force. Edward O'Gorman of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e reported a 'spellbound hesitation' before an ovation. Virgil Thomson, in the \u003ci\u003eHerald Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e, heard Walter make Bruckner into 'live music', and judged the unfinished Ninth 'a master's masterpiece'. Their disagreements make these accounts valuable: the performance was taking place within an active debate over the music's worth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWalter understood something of the difficulties his listeners faced. In his 1940 essay \u003ci\u003eBruckner and Mahler\u003c\/i\u003e, he recalled that his affection for Bruckner's melodies and orchestral language had long coexisted with uncertainty about the music's apparent lack of form. Conducting it transformed his understanding. The expansive dimensions, unexpected turns and interruptions became features of a world in which he felt at home. His advocacy thus rested on an intimacy acquired through performance, with all the practical demands of making these vast structures speak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe score itself had undergone a comparatively recent transformation in public understanding. Ferdinand Löwe's edition, used for the posthumous premiere, had extensively altered Bruckner's orchestration and other details. Alfred Orel's edition restored the composer's original text; the Philharmonic had introduced it to American audiences under Otto Klemperer in October 1934. Walter's 1946 performances belonged to this continuing reassessment. Only twelve years separated them from that New York introduction, a short interval in the life of a work whose reception had already been shaped by decades of performance in an altered form.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor listeners familiar with Walter's celebrated Columbia Symphony recording of 1959, the broadcast also offers a different perspective on the conductor. The music occupies roughly fifty-two minutes, against almost fifty-nine in the studio account. Such figures cannot convey an interpretation, but they indicate how substantially his conception broadened. Here, swift movement can coexist with pronounced local flexibility: an urgent overall course does not imply an unvarying pulse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat freedom has divided later critics. Reviewing the \u003ci\u003eMusic \u0026amp; Arts\u003c\/i\u003e issue in 2003, Richard Osborne found particular dramatic force in the opening movement, though he considered the Adagio compromised by the recording's distortion. Michael Tanner admired the performance's expressive flexibility and clarity of orchestral detail. James A. Altena, comparing Walter's surviving accounts a decade later, felt that some first-movement pauses and slowings weakened its continuity. The disagreement concerns a central feature of Walter's approach: how far an individual phrase may expand while remaining part of the symphonic argument.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWilliam Carragan's later analysis supplies two particularly revealing details. Near the end of the first movement, he identifies timpani interventions associated with an older Dutch Bruckner tradition; in the Adagio, he draws attention to a marked acceleration through bars 105-120. These touches connect Walter's interpretation with performing practices that a modern listener might otherwise overlook. His Bruckner emerges as mobile, responsive and shaped by inherited habits as well as by close engagement with the score.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe broadcast belongs to the same March series as those contested performances, but preserves a separate Sunday occasion. It allows us to return to the musical evidence behind the argument: the relationship between urgency and breadth, the shaping of the great paragraphs, and the conviction with which Walter entrusted this still disputed work to his New York players. The contemporary press supplies the setting; the surviving performance gives us the opportunity to form our own response.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout this remastering\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNew Ambient Stereo XR remastering by Andrew Rose brings fresh clarity and presence to this broadcast. Surface noise has been treated, and the interruption between the first and second movements, while latecomers were seated, has been removed. The opening and closing radio announcements are retained as separate tracks. The online sample presents the complete Scherzo.\u003c\/p\u003e578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab1_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fFull Track Listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5ftrack_listing578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 24px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eBRUCKNER\u003c\/b\u003e Symphony No. 9 in D minor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003e1. RADIO Introduction (1:30)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 16px;\"\u003e2. 1st movement: Feierlich, misterioso (21:55)\u003cbr\u003e3. 2nd movement: Scherzo: Bewegt, lebhaft; Trio: Schnell (9:59)\u003cbr\u003e4. 3rd movement: Adagio: Langsam, feierlich (19:54)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003e5. RADIO Conclusion (0:24)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 18px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ePhilharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003econducted by \u003cb\u003eBruno Walter\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 12px;\"\u003eLive broadcast from Carnegie Hall, New York, 17 March 1946\u003cbr\u003eXR remastered by Andrew Rose\u003cbr\u003eAmbient Stereo\u003cbr\u003eCopyright 2026 Pristine Audio\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 14px;\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eTotal duration: 53:43\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab2_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_labelfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fCover Art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_typefb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcover_art578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_contentfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers\/thumbs\/PASC778.jpg578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_thumbnail2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_cover_download_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5fcovers\/PASC778.pdf578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample1_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample2_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample3_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample4_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample5_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f578a9379d1e540bd96d26f03a79628d9tab3_sample6_s3_locationfb55cd020f0643f08418183279e63a5f","brand":"Pristine Classical","offers":[{"title":"CD with case \u0026 artwork (+MP3)","offer_id":61282931114318,"sku":null,"price":17.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD only in plastic sleeve (+MP3)","offer_id":61282931212622,"sku":null,"price":13.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1691\/2535\/files\/PASC778_b06cfefd-08e1-41c0-97b8-b0bef91e0426.jpg?v=1792426429","url":"https:\/\/www.pristineclassical.com\/products\/pasc778-cd","provider":"Pristine Classical","version":"1.0","type":"link"}