|
Bach-Mahler-Walter
Bradley Lehman wrote (April 4, 2002):
< Jim Morrison wrote: I was wrong. This is clearly the Bruno Waler/Mahler/Bach list. >
So, did Walter ever record (or even perform) the composite orchestral suite that Mahler assembled from Bach's suites 2 and 3? (The one that Esa-Pekka Salonen recorded in 1999 in L.A.?) A weird pastiche: the ouverture, rondeau, and badinerie from suite #2 and then the air and two gavottes from suite #3, reorchestrated. B minor, D major, ehhh, whatever!
Walter devotes a chapter to the St Matthew Passion in his book. Anybody know: do there exist any recordings of a Walter performance of the SMP?
Walter describes ornaments in Bach as an essential spice, as with food: their general function is to introduce enough dissonance for good taste, where the music might be too bland without them. I like crossover comments like that.
Philip Peters wrote (April 5, 2002):
< Bradley Lehman wrote: Walter devotes a chapter to the St Matthew Passion in his book. Anybody know: do there exist any recordings of a Walter performance of the SMP? >
Only of part one and IIRC that is not quite complete either. It was recorded in 1943 with Mack Harrell and Herbert Janssen as the most distinguished of the soloists (the others are Walter Hain, Lorenzo Alvary, Nadine Conner and Jean Watson). The orchestra is the NYP. It has been reissued on CD as Phonographe PH 5031/32 by Nuova Era Records in Italy (bizarrely coupled with Leonore III with the VPO from 1936) and probably on other labels as well.IMO it is rather terrible but, of course, interesting.
Bruno Walter : Short Biography | New York Philharmonic Orchestra | BWV 244 – Walter
|
