New York Philharmonic, Bruno Walter - Mahler: Symphony No.4, Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit (1994) CD-Rip

If you can get past the 1940s monaural sound (and if you are not already familiar with this performance, you will get a shock). This is the gentlest, most right sounding rendition I have ever heard. The tempi are uncommonly brisk, though they never sound that way. The third movement has never sounded more beautiful. Halban is perfect in the finale. Walter passed away before he could record this work in stereo. His later performances were very different and I'm still not sure whether or not his later slower tempos and even greater expression were an improvement. Did Mahler perform the work this way? I don't know. I only wish I did. I can say that this and Mengleberg's performance have to be heard to be believed. Of the two, Walter's sounds the most convincing, however if the notoriously unreliable Alma can be believed, in this symphony, Mengleberg's reading was (at least in the 1900s if not in 1939) just like Mahler's own. Push comes to shove, if I could own just one Mahler Fourth, this would be it. Lovers of modern sound, must go elsewhere.