Search - Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra :: Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

From the Penguin Guide, which awarded this CD a 'rosette' fo

Record Collector | Mons, Belgium | 01/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bruno Walter's 1959 account of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony represents the peak of his achievement during his Indian summer in the CBS recording studios just before he died. Walter's mellow, persuasive reading leads one on through the leisurely paragraphs so that the logic and coherence seem obvious where other performances sound aimless. Perhaps the Scherzo is not vigourous enough to provide the fullest contrast--though the sound has ample bite--yet it fits the overall conception exactly. The final slow movement has a nobility which makes one glad that Bruckner never completed the intended finale. After this, anything would have been an anticlimax."

Walter great, orchestra second rate

HB | Fort Mill, SC | 07/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Bruno Walter was a great conductor and he certainly knew his Bruckner. However, this recording was done with a pickup orchestra and probably with less strings than you would normally have with a great established orchestra like the Berlin or Vienna Philharmonics. The music sounds very thin and in Bruckner, that is a major liability, in my humble opinion. Not a reason to avoid this CD, but other recordings will give you a much better perspective of the real Bruckner sound."