Janos Gereben ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>[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.

25 September, to be precise.  (It happens to be the day I was born, so I
naturally take an interest: Furtwaengler was in Stockholm with the VPO
that night and I have that concert on CD too) The Mozart 40 and Brahms
2 from this concert were released by Music & Arts some years ago.  The
orchestra was the BPO and (according to the M&A CD) it was Walter's only
appearance with that oprchestra after the war.

Interestingly, my copy of the aforementioned CD (also received from a
friend in Europe), which stems from an Austrian Radio broadcast IIRC, calls
it Walter's "first *professional* engagement" (my emphasis).  Perhaps the
BPO didn't pay him?:-)

Deryk Barker
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