Mozart & Haydn Box Set 6 CDs

Release November 22, 2024

6 CD Box Set Edition

In the era of great conductors, many were appreciated, admired, and even idolized. Bruno Walter was much loved. He was as stern in rehearsals, as demanding of his musicians, as any conductor, but he projected an air of goodness; it came through so strongly in his personality that his rather stern-looking face seemed to glow. All of that was also reflected—and still is reflected—in his performances, all the more so the older he got. In his glory days with the New York Philharmonic, in the 1940s and ‘50s, he was considered the antithesis of Arturo Toscanini, but comparing their recordings usually yields more similarities than differences. They greatly admired each other; Toscanini privately admitted that Walter might have found something more in the Beethoven Ninth (“perhaps he is right…”). As they aged, Toscanini sped up, adding ever more tension to his interpretations; Walter slowed down, radiating ever more love. This was especially evident in his Mozart. German Romantic classics, Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler, had been central in his mature years, but his lifelong devotion to Mozart grew in his “post-retirement” days.

Walter had retired in 1958, with his last New York Philharmonic performances of Bruckner’s Ninth and Mahler’s Second (too poor to attend both, I chose Bruckner, after much agonizing). The Mahler and a Schubert “Unfinished” from March 1958 would be his last recordings with the Philharmonic and his only two in stereo, but in 1960 he would return to conduct and record Das Lied von der Erde. When he retired to California, Columbia Records executives tried to convince him that stereo would make his monaural recordings obsolete and blur his place in music history. They offered him a pickup orchestra, to be called the Columbia Symphony. The orchestra’s size varied with the repertoire, and its personnel varied widely from day to day. The “Prague” Symphony, recorded in a single four-hour session, was typical for these 18th-Century works: There were 34 players, the strings, 14 violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses. The concertmaster was Israel Baker, but all the other section leaders were top flight players from the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The rest came from Hollywood’s inexhaustible supply of retired studio musicians, many of whom played for motion picture studios.

From 1958 to 1961, Walter recorded 55 works at the American Legion Auditorium in Hollywood, where the reverberant acoustics supported and enhanced his brilliant performances. Only the choral finale of the Beethoven Ninth proved unsatisfactory, so Walter made one more trip to New York, this time with an East Coast version of the Columbia Symphony and the Westminster Symphonic Choir.

Walter’s Mozarts and Haydns are anything but historically informed practice. Yet they gain so much that only the crustiest curmudgeon could complain. Haydn requires a quick, dynamic wit that did not fit Walter’s musical personality. His two New York Philharmonic Haydn symphonies (Nos. 95 and 102) are closer to the ideal than these two (Nos. 88 and 100) from Hollywood. Still, all of them provide wonderful listening, for Walter’s Haydn if not for Haydn’s. His New York Mozart symphonies, recorded in the late 1950s, are similar to those from Hollywood, although the New York orchestra is a bit better integrated.

Zino Francescatti was a fiery French virtuoso who recorded for Columbia virtually the entire violin concerto repertoire, from Bach to Bernstein. He was also well known for his sonata performances with the pianist Robert Casadesus, a long-time friend and collaborator. Playing his “Hart” Stradivarius, Francescatti recorded an exceptionally serious and deeply felt Beethoven concerto with Walter in Hollywood. In these magnificent, singing Mozarts, Francescatti’s bright, sparkling tone animates Walter’s frothy readings in both concertos.

These six discs are a fond reminder of a much-loved conductor.

James H. North