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Bruno Walter died 50 years ago today

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norman lebrecht

February 17, 2012

This is one of the last works he recorded, in 1961. The youtube upload is of the historic Vienna concert he gave in January 1938.

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Sixtus says:

February 18, 2012 at 12:08 am

This is one of the greatest recordings ever made of anything and it is the one most likely to have traces of what Mahler would have done with the piece, had he survived to lead the premiere instead of Walter. Walter’s tempo for the last movement clocks it in at a “mere” 18:10, a far cry from the close-to-half-hour renditions we can get nowadays. And this recording, like his stereo remake decades later, preserves his quasi-dancing foot stomp right before the violins enter in the 2nd movement. A priceless document.