[Here's an attorney who takes his Mahler seriously!  This abbreviated story
of tracking down some hard-to-get information is from Guy R. Fairstein,
forwarded with his permission.  Janos.]

   I had received from a friend in Europe a CD of a concert in Munich
   on October 2 1950 billed as Bruno Walter's first post-WW II concert
   in Germany.  The program was identified on the disc as Weber's Oberon
   Overture, the Schubert Unfinished, and Mahler Symphony No. 1.

   I mentioned this to a friend in NYC, who commented immediately that
   this was wrong, that Walter's first post-WW II concert in Germany
   had been in Berlin, earlier in 1950.

   Then my European friend reported that, upon listening with the score,
   he had noticed a cut in IV.  We thought that not likely characteristic
   of Walter's Mahler.  We had doubts now whether this was Walter
   conducting.

   I checked the on-line index to the New York Public Library's Bruno
   Walter papers.  A couple of items seemed likely to answer the riddle
   whether it is or is not Walter.  One was the itinerary for Walter's
   1950 European tour.

   I visited the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the
   Performing Arts.  The 1950 itinerary described on the website index
   proved indeed to hold the answer to the riddle.  It shows a concert
   in Munich on October 2, 1950, for which Mahler 1 was one of the works
   to be played.

   The microfilm roll contains the typescript for the tour, including
   a page showing the concert programs for Berlin, followed by Munich
   and Zurich.

   The typewritten schedule sets forth, for the two Berlin concerts,
   the rehearsal dates, the concert dates, and the works to be played.

   For the sole Munich concert it does not set forth the rehearsal dates.
   They are handwritten in, in a hand that is obviously European -- that
   of Walter, per a librarian.  But it does show the concert date,
   October 2, 1950.  Bingo!

   The typewritten schedule for Munich sets forth the program only
   to the extent that it lists either Mahler 4 (with soprano Annelies
   Kupper) or Mahler 1.  The references to the 4th are crossed out in
   hand markings.  That which remains is the Mahler 1 entry.

   The typed text describes the rest of the program as being "open."
   However, above the Mahler entry, the balance of the program is entered
   in a nearly illegible handwriting, also identified by a librarian as
   that of Bruno Walter:  the Weber Overture to Euryanthe and the
   "Schubert unvollendete"

   Note that it is Euryanthe in the program, not Oberon as stated on
   the CD I had received.

   At any rate, Bruno Walter it is, the cut notwithstanding.

   My NYC friend had given to me on CD, in poor sound, Walter's concert
   Mahler 4th taken from an acetate of the February 6, 1944, concert
   (or broadcast).  He told me that Desi Halban sings in English, but
   I cannot make out a word in any language.

   While scrolling down the microfilm roll to the Munich program page,
   I spotted a similar typescript for the NY Phil concerts presenting
   the Mahler 4th.  To the right of Desi Halban's name, in a European
   script, perhaps Walter's, is written:  "English."

   The time gap between the concert dates (February 1944) and the
   recording date (May 1945) of the CBS Walter Mahler 4th with Halban
   resulted because AFofM President James C.  Petrillo had called a
   strike against the recording industry that lasted roughly from June
   1942 to November 1944.  This is the same Petrillo who, in the '30s,
   had wired Il Duce to protest the use by the Italian Consular Office
   in Chicago of a non-union band.

Janos Gereben/SF, CA
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