The second volume in
Tahra’s Walter/New York broadcasts is,
with the exception of the Mozart Exsultate
Jubilate, an all-Brahms affair.
All performances were taped between
1951 and 1953. Included is a pairing
that has stirred some admiration over
the years in previous appearances –
Walter and Myra Hess in the Second Concerto.
This is a spacious and noble reading
of a work Hess had fought shy of performing
– in that she was of course hardly unique
– and indeed had first performed only
thirteen years before, with Boult in
London in 1938. She sounds thoroughly
in control of its rhetoric though sometimes
the runs are apt to be rather blurry
– a deficiency she covers with quite
a bit of pedal. It’s a leonine, humane
reading and the opposite of the Horowitz/Toscanini
approach, as documented in their commercial
and live performances (dismal experiences
in the extreme). Two highlights here
are the passionate traversal of the
Allegro appassionato and the
fusion of gracioso elegance of phrasing
and the capricious timing that emboldens
the finale. But these are two amongst
many in a reading that has both humility
and humanity in equal measure.
Walter was joined by
another distinguished Brahmsian, Erica
Morini, in the Violin Concerto, which
was a work she’d recorded and of whose
performances live broadcasts also exist.
Her silvery tone, restrained vibrato
and lyrical intimacy are all characteristic.
As are indeed her pervasive Viennese
portamenti, a number falling rather
predictably toward the end of phrases.
Sometimes the recording accentuates
– or her relative lack of projection
exacerbates – a tendency for her to
be covered during wind passages and
for small tuning clashes to occur (try
around 5.50 in the slow movement). In
the Adagio we have that feminine reticence
at its most persuasive and in the finale
there’s a brisk elevation that is attractive
without ever quite possessing that necessary
gypsy spirit. The notes don’t mention
a brief but horrible mishap in the first
movement from 10.40 when after some
tough passagework Morini’s intonation
buckles, she loses composure, plays
a bare approximation and in fact then
misses a phrase altogether. She gets
aboard though; these things do happen
in concerts and sang froid prevails
all round, Walter maintaining imperturbable
professionalism in the same way that
Hamilton Harty had once waited a couple
of bars whilst Wilhelm Backhaus recovered
himself in Manchester in the 1920s.
Brahms’ Second was
one of Walter’s favourite symphonies.
The sheer consistency of his approach
between the commercial and off air performances
that survive from the twenty year period
from 1940 to 1960 argue that he had
long since arrived at a plateau of understanding.
The sound here is sympathetic, string
choirs are splendid and the NYPSO play
with corporate virtuosity and lyric
flexibility. The slow movement is particularly
moving and the principal horn distinguishes
himself throughout. I’d far rather listen
to Walter’s New York Philharmonic Brahms
to his later Columbia Symphony, which
is rhythmically slacker though assiduous
collectors will know, as Tahra reminds
us in its notes, that other extant performances
of this symphony exist with the orchestras
of Boston, Philadelphia, Berlin, Paris
as well as the NBC. In the Mozart, to
which Walter came relatively late in
his career, Seefried is capable of considerable
power and yet never forces (except in
the final phrase) whilst managing to
maintain softness at the top of her
register.
Certainly this is an
attractive compilation of Walter’s New
York broadcasts. The Piano Concerto
performance is a deeply attractive one
and the Symphony shows his special affinities.
Warmly recommended.
Jonathan Woolf
Irmgard Seefried (soprano) 
