Search - Schubert, Walter, Columbia Symphony :: Symphony 9 " Great "

A classic recording, lovingly rendered

Alan Majeska | Bad Axe, MI, USA | 10/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bruno Walter's Schubert Symphony 9 was recorded with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Los Angeles, California) in the last years of his career, and it is a classic recording, lovingly rendered. Walter (1876-1962) born "Bruno Walter Schlesinger" in Berlin, Germany said in a 1958 interview in his back garden (VAI DVD, "Bruno Walter: the Maestro, the Man") that Schubert and Beethoven were the two composers closest to his heart during his formative years in his teens and when his career began in the late 1890s. Walter recorded only Schubert Symphonies 5,8,9 (8 with the New York Philharmonic; 5 and 9 with the Columbia Symphony) out of Schubert's eight known symphonies, and the incidental music to the play "Rosamunde" for Columbia in the mid-late 1950s, so his Schubert discography as a conductor is rather slim.



The loving, affectionate manner Walter applied to Mozart's Symphonies, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", and Beethoven Symphonies is also used here, and it is very beautiful. The Allegro in I doesn't move as fast as in many other recordings, but it is not sluggish or bogged down, either; II is very poetic; III and IV have a moderate bounce, but Schubert's message is well put across. The Columbia Symphony plays beautifully, and the recording is excellent in every respect.



This is one of my favorite Schubert 9ths, along with Solti/Vienna (Decca), Karl Bohm/Berlin (DG), and Barenboim/Berlin (Sony). Highest recommendation."