Mahler: Symphony No. 9 by Bruno Walter (2024 Remastered, Hollywood 1961)

Bruno Walter is not a conductor who seeks to impress, but he is renowned for the poetic and thoughtful quality of his interpretations. He is an incomparable interpreter of the music of his master, Gustav Mahler. His trademark was a serene approach to conducting, calling the musicians "his friends" and never positioning himself as an authoritarian leader. Videos show him conducting his musicians with empathy, a very lively and expressive gaze, and a particularly active left hand.

His recording of Mahler’s 9th Symphony with the Columbia Orchestra cannot overshadow the earlier one with Vienna. However, listening to it proves deeply moving (from the very beginning of the first movement), and rarely has the complexity of Mahler’s writing been explored to such an extent. An analytical interpretation in the most positive sense of the term. The remastered edition provides all the depth and foundation in the lower and midrange frequencies that a work of such orchestral magnitude demands.