一段关于瓦尔特与哥伦比亚的介绍
However, the Columbia Orchestra which appeared on Bruno Walter's stereo recordings from 1957 onward was something different and very special. Bruno Walter had retired at age 80 after a very successful career recording with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, where he served as Musical Advisor from 1947 to 1949, and as a frequent guest conductor over the following seven years. In 1957, while living in California, he was approached by Columbia's executives with a new proposal. Told of the advent of stereo recording and the threat that it constituted to the future sales of monaural records, Bruno Walter was asked to undertake a new series of recordings in stereo to preserve his interpretations in the most modern sound possible, and to allow them to reach new generations of listeners.
The result was a new Columbia Symphony Orchestra, chosen specifically by and for Bruno Walter. This group was an ensemble of 50 to 70 members, assembled from the best freelance musicians on the West Coast, many of whom typically never took on orchestral work, but made the exception to work with Bruno Walter. It was one of the best recording orchestras ever assembled in the USA, incorporating many of the best characteristics of the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig - which Bruno Walter had conducted in Austria and Germany during the 1920’s and 1930’s - as well as the New York Philharmonic. This orchestra recorded much of the core Classical and Romantic repertoire under Bruno Walter's baton, including the late Mozart symphonies, Gustav Mahler's symphonies Nos. 1 and 9, the four Johannes Brahms symphonies, Dvorak's Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9, Schubert's Ninth, the Wagner orchestral music, and the complete L.v. Beethoven symphonies.
