Bruno Walter - Enregistrements de concerts Vol.2 - Tchaïkovsky: Roméo et Juliette · Symphonie n°5 (1998)

I believe Walter recorded only one Tchaikovsky work commercially: the Sixth Symphony, acoustically, in 1924. This CD contains air checks of live broadcast performances, and as such, is quite acceptable. The Romeo & Juliet is a respectable performance, but not memorable. The Fifth Symphony is quite another case. In those days, it was conventional practice either to approach Tchaikovsky from the wildly personal viewpoint (Mengelberg, Stokowski) or from the extremely straightforward viewpoint (Toscanini, Beecham). Walter, who was usually straightforward, chooses both approaches in this performance of the Fifth, and in doing so, gives us a wild interpretive ride. He was always better in live performances than he was in the recording studio, where most of his records were made, and like other great conductors, he conducted the audience as much as the orchestra, which, after all, had already been set as to how they were going to play the work anyhow. The stick waving is for the audience. I saw him conduct a third-rate San Francisco Symphony in a first-rate performance of Bruckner's Ninth Symphony. I recommend this issue enthusiastically