Customer Reviews

Bruno Walter - The Edition ~ Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 39, 40, & 41 "Jupiter"

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To those of us who remember Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Toscanini, etc., and start to doubt our memories of the great beauty brought into our lives through the art of music, I suggest this disc. After hearing it, I had to buy more discs to share this joy.

The more we hear the recordings by artists of the first fifty years of the twentieth century, the more we are reminded of their greatness and that which is not present in popular performers today.

Use this disc as a standard to expect more from present day musicians.

Don't let Sony's Mono sound put you off this recording: these are wonderful performances, the sound clear and balanced in these early-mid 1950s recordings. Bruno Walter (1876-1962) was one of the 20th century's great Mozart conductors, along with Otto Klemperer, George Szell, Thomas Beecham, and Karl Bohm. He performed Mozart frequently in concert throughout his career, and recorded Symphonies 25,28,29,35,36,38,39,40,and 41 with the New York Philharmonic in the early 1950s (Mono sound) and Symphonies 35-41 with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra (members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic + some studio musicians) in the late 1950s in stereo. Both sets are excellent in sound and performance: the earlier set has slightly faster tempos and a "Leaner" sound; the later set slower tempos and a richer, fuller sound, due to stereo technology.

I recommend these highly, along with Walter's recordings of Mozart Symphonies 36+38; and 25,28,29,35:also in the "Bruno Walter Edition" if you can find them. Sony is to be commended for releasing these recordings. I also recommend Walter's later Columbia Symphony cycle of Mozart Symphonies 35,36,38,39,40,41 if you can find it. For a differing point of view, there's George Szell/Cleveland Orchestra Mozart Symphonies 35,39,40,41 (35,40,41 are in a Sony "Essential Classics" budget issue).

These classic mono recordings from 1953 and 1956 are easy to evaluate--they have been mainstrays of the Mozart catalog for fifty years and show no sign of decline. Walter was at his most vigorous here, showing more inner life and alertness than in his stereo remakes with the Columbia Sym. We are fortunate that two great Mozarteans, Walter and Klemperer, left us both their mono and stereo versions of the same works, for even in decline these towering musicians are commadning in their interpretations.

Having said that, I was still surprised on revisiting Walter's Sym. 39 at how forwardly aggressive it really is compared to late Walter, and how much better the NY Phil. plays than I had remembered. The G minor and Jupiter are equally muscular and diect. This is often edge-of-your-seat musicmaking, caught in very warm mono sound. The slow movements are without repeats, and period-performance fanciers will be impatient with the weighty minuets and romaticized slow movements. To me, neither is much of a limitation. Walter's Mozart is as timeless as his Mahler, and this CD is a treasure. I'm grateful that Sony didn't stick with the stereo versions, which were already bestsellers in their catalog.

I quite agree with the other reviewers.having listened to breezy performances of Mozart's performances by Sir Neville Marriner which i always enjoyed i have always carried an impression that Mozart was a genius whose works are full of drama,wit,humour and sweet pathos.Now i have to revise my views after listening to this HIGH VOLTAGE performance.It reveals an astonishing depth ,breadth and sweep that i could not notice previously in other performances.Walter reveals the polyphony in these heroic works and also brings out the organic unity.The orchestral fabric is transparent.The MONO recording is excellent and does not come in the way of these glorious performances.
Toscanini considered the third movement of Mozart's Symphony no 40 as the most tragic piece ever written.i found this hard to accept after listening to performances by marriner and Szell.they sounded heroic!Walter reveals why and how it is tragic!he starts of the first movement quite slowly but as it develops it reveals the underlying pathos like no other performance.it is heroic and at the same time tragic!it is not the pathos of a weakling!
These are wholesome and mature performances that cannot be surpassed!

If you buy this CD, please be aware that you will never hear Mozart symphonies like this performed as well in a live performance. You will only remember wistfully that no matter if the orchestra is your local university ensemble or the Vienna Philarmonic, the conductor you see IS NOT Bruno Walter. Even Stravinsky, who loved to steal from Mozart as much as Rickey Henderson steals bases in baseball, thought Walter conducted Mozart like no other. Some conductors, like Karl Bohm, thought Walter was too sentimental in Mozart, but all I hear is perfect balance, perfect tempi, perfect performance. Forget the sonic limitations here from the 1950s. Mozart is THE MAN, and Walter's conducting is as good as it gets. That's all, folks!

Mozart's last three symphonies are the crowning glory of the work of one of the 100 greatest geniuses who have ever lived. Symphony No. 40 in G minor is a perfect work of art, an astonishing display of power and emotion seldom equaled in the history of music. The first movement is filled with nervous energy. Each development of the opening theme satisfies our need to be taken deeper into the music. We are never disappointed, never tired by what we hear, only delighted. Curiously, we find ourselves wanting to slow down time to extend the pleasure we experience as something deep inside us resonates with the tension we feel that reflects something we are unable to name but we know resides in our being.

This symphony is over 200 years old, yet it seems as new and fresh as today. Part of the reason for the modernity of the piece is first the anxiety reflected in the music that has become a way of life for us in the 21st Century. The nervous energy in the symphony is replaced by music which reflects a deep sadness that reaches into our soul and connects us to the suffering that is a part of the life of everyone.

Our connection to this suffering is healing in that we accept it and know it can be turned into something positive for living. All the suffering and anxiety of Mozart's short life find their release in Symphony No. 40, which was composed at break neck speed and reflected the truth of Mozart's experience with life.

It should come as no surprise to the listener that Mozart's music continues to be used by experts in human growth and development to increase our ability to tap into the enormous potential available to each person, but so seldom realized in our television culture. Turn off the TV and the cell phone and tune in to Symphony No. 40. Experience for yourself the power of truly great music to help you understand what it means to be human.

Este disco es una maravilla. Yo no había escuchado jamás un director tan capacitado, y con tanta sensibilidad, para intepretar las sinfonías de Mozart. Bruno Walter (un artista) da aquí una lección absoluta de cómo se hace ésto (del mismo modo en que la dió con relación al acto 1º de la Walkyria) y deja, a todos los demás directores, a la altura del betún. He escuchado antes a mi admirado Karl Böhm (demasiado enérgico aquí para mi gusto), y a otros, en esta tarea. Toda comparación sería odiosa. Por lo demás muy buen sonido,aunque mono, que permite disfrutar de 78 largos y placenteros minutos de gran música.

Authentic, angelic music penetrates these most humble and exalted performances.

Bruno Walter and the New York Philharmonic are the blessed vessels through which the towering sounds of eternity instruct the intimate consciousness.

Recommendation: Relax the body; relax the mind; concentrate.

I consider one remarkable aspect about the reading that Walter makes about Mozart.
The point is an interesting point to discuss with his friends who share obviously the passion and love by the great music. Walter has been the only conductor who experienced a musical journey from Mahler to Mozart.
This fact became a new Mozartian sound . because Mozart means the long return from the dark shadows , the infinite loneliness and the hopeless , fundamentals aspects in Mahler's music despite another values. And please, don't forget that Walter was an intimate friend of Gustav Mahler.
The Mozart sound generated in Walter becomes in this sense a happy return from the ashes , the new gaze of the hero who was in the hell and makes his reddemption road.
Watch for instance his Mozart from the thirties with the Vienna Philarmonic . These works are loaded of dyonisiac enthusiasm , of living enjoyment .
The WW2 appears, and however Walter never lost that conception. Even the return to Mahler performances are enriched by this Mozartian accent. Think it the legendary Fourth (my favorite achievement) and Fifth Symphonies from 1947 in this same label .
The brief cycle made with the Philadelphia Orchestra once more confirms my opinion.
In this set we can feel to Walter playing Mozart with the same approach and loaded with more lyricism , wisdom and above all that epic majesty that you don't listen with the master champions of Mozart in this age. Actually the technique prevails over the inner intention of the score . And I wonder in silent voice: Is this new approach a decadence signal or perhaps a post modernism virtue?
Acquire this set , because the inner conviction and deep commitment established for Walter , doesn't seem in the actuality to be a matter of importance (pitifully).
A must in your collection.

I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. Mozart is really difficult. I've probably heard 50 versions of these symphonies, and most are not very inspiring. Neither is this one. These are for my taste sluggish, plodding performances, but more importantly they are clearly under-rehearsed, unrefined, and extremely un-clean. Good mozart symphony recordings are difficult to come by, but believe me, you can do better.