Bruno Walter: from Brahms to Haydn

I find it interesting that, in the Bruno Walter: Complete Warner Classics Remastered Edition, the CDs of compositions by Joseph Haydn should follow the Brahms albums, rather than “chronologically” preceding them. Like Brahms, Haydn received an incomplete account of his symphonies. However, while those interested in Brahms had to endure the absence of his Opus 73 (second) symphony, Haydn was limited to only four of the 104 numbered symphonies, which were allocated to two of the CDs. Nevertheless, I had to appreciate that, on the first of the CDs, the overture to Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz, served as a “buffer” between Brahms’ Opus 98 (fourth and last) symphony and Haydn’s Hoboken I/92 “Oxford” symphony in G major.

1937 photograph of Bruno Walter (photographer unknown, public domain, from Wikimedia Commons)

That said, I have to remind myself that all of these recordings were made during the first half of the last century, long before musicologists added “historically informed” to their lexicon! Instead, I prefer to take pleasure in the fact that the four Walter recordings of Haydn symphonies were captured in three major European cities. As might be guessed, Vienna was the city for two of the symphonies: Hoboken I/96 (The Miracle) and Hoboken I/100 (Military). The other two were divided between Paris (Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire) and London (London Symphony Orchestra).

Personally I found myself more interested in the second of these two venues. London seems to have been more interested in Walter than Paris was. As a result, as his Wikipedia page observes, he was “chief conductor of the German seasons at Covent Garden in London from 1924 to 1931.” Also, he enjoyed a rich relationship with contralto Kathleen Ferrier, which lasted under her premature death in 1953. Indeed, one of my most treasured albums is Kathleen Ferrier in New York, which includes her contributing to Walter’s performance of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1948. (Spoiler alert: Das Lied von der Erde will show up in my next Walter article. As might be guessed, Mahler receives more CDs than Haydn in this collection!)