Bruno Walter - Walter conducts Brahms, Volume 2 (1951/53) [2016]

Bruno Walter's 1951 Brahms Cycle with the NY Philharmonic continues

Rare and previously unissued live Brahms recordings from Carnegie Hall

This series continues here with what survives of Bruno Walter's fabulous 1951 series of Brahms concerts with the New York Philharmonic, together with a later live performance of the Violin Concerto which fills the gap in the 1951 recordings left by the apparent loss of a performance with Zino Francescatti.

Preparing this release has required some major technical innovation, both in the Symphony No. 3, previously unissued, and the Violin Concerto. As outlined in the quoted review in our CD liner notes of a previous issue of the latter, things went wrong during the first movement, culminating in a momentary silence from the soloist - the result of a broken string. Morini quickly borrowed the violin offered by the orchestra's leader, John Corigliano and carried on playing while he replaced her broken string.That gap here is filled by the seamless mixing in of Morini's 1956 studio recording for Westminster at around 11 minutes to patch the gap whilst instruments were exchanged.

Andrew Rose



Tracks:

BRAHMS Symphony No. 3 - Symphony No. 4
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 - Violin Concerto

Personnel:

Bruno Walter, conductor
Erica Morini, violin
Myra Hess, piano
Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York