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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every incarnation the best, July 7, 2004
Regardless of which incarnation of Bruno Walter's "Indian summer" Bruckner Symphony No. 9 you collect, you will be getting the most communicative version of the symphony available. Many German conductors take a far differenct view of the 9th, making it more monumental, displaying more fervor and emotion during the peaks of the first movement, and mercilessly driving the music forward in the scherzo. Walter takes a Viennese view that incorporates music logic and inevitability into his intrepretation of the score. Every phrase seems to be more thought out than in other performances. While Walter underplays the emotional weight of the music compared to a conductor like Karajan, Bruckner's message of end of life resignation and fulfillment -- especially in the closing pages of the finale -- is more truthful and compelling than in more dramatic versions. It is as if Walter, at the end of his illustrious career, was perfectly suited to conduct this music, which was composed at the end of Bruckner's life. The two make perfect collaborators on the musical message about the end of life and prospective afterlife. The recording, from 1959, is balanced, honest and lifelike. I think of this as one of the two best Bruckner symphony recordings ever, the other being Gunther Wand's third recording of the 8th Symphony from Lubeck in 1987 (see my review). I cannot imagine a more convincing recording of the Bruckner 9th Symphony than this one.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another gem from Walter's "Indian Summer" with Columbia, February 16, 2001
I once read a quote which said, in effect, that Beethoven climbs the steep, craggy mountainside, while Bruckner stands at the summit and surveys the far horizons. This image is especially fitting for this great, sadly unfinished symphony. "Sadly", yes--but it's hard to imagine what could possibly have come after that glorious adagio that now concludes the work. Bruno Walter conducts this masterpiece as he did Mahler's Ninth, as if he were preparing himself for his own impending departure from life. His famously light but firm touch is in evidence with the singing violins and not-too-overbearing brass. Certainly, many other conductors have wrung more bombast from the scherzo (Solti), or more plaintiveness from the adagio (Furtwangler). But this horse doesn't *need* the whip. Walter keeps the symphony unified, without sounding episodic or repetitive, and brings out as much *soul* as I can imagine anyone ever getting out of this work. It really is a last testament, with all of life's accretions stripped away, leaving only the man before his God. (Bruckner dedicated this symphony, "To God", IINM) The 40-year-old recorded sound holds up quite well for all but the most finicky audiophiles (I use my computer, or a boom box in the kitchen, myself). This is a noble, beautifully simple piece of music, in a performance to be treasured by one of the 20th century's short list good guys.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the great symphonic performances on record..., February 13, 2000
In this 1959 recording, Bruno Walter does something that few conductors and orchestras have ever been able to do: he finds - and maintains - exactly the right balance of elements necessary to realize Bruckner's extraordinary symphonic vision of spiritual ascension. Walter never lets the sprawling outer movements of this masterpiece lose their shape or thrust, and no one before or since has ever gotten the diabolical Scherzo so 'right'. Happily, Columbia's remix for CD captures the expansive sonorities of this performance in all their rapturous glory. There are a few good versions of Bruckner's 9th in the catalog, but this is the one for the desert island. Enjoy!
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