Bruno Walter’s 1953 Carnegie Hall performance of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde captures the conductor in late style: unhurried, humane, and utterly assured. Drawn from a live broadcast and newly remastered, this release restores the full presence of the hall and the natural breadth of Walter’s pacing. Set Svanholm and Elena Nikolaidi bring strength and clarity to the vocal lines, while the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York responds with alertness and depth. What emerges is not simply a historical document, but a living, breathing Mahler performance shaped in real time before an audience.

Framed in its original broadcast context by Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, the concert unfolds with remarkable coherence. Walter allows the music space — sometimes strikingly so — and the long arc of Der Abschied becomes the emotional centre of gravity, unfolding with patience and inevitability. The restoration reveals orchestral colour, vocal presence, and dynamic range with uncommon immediacy, allowing listeners to experience the concert as an event rather than an artefact.

On 13 February we also mark the anniversary of the death of Richard Wagner (1813–1883). To commemorate the composer whose influence shaped the musical world into which Mahler was born, we are offering 10% off all Wagner recordings in the Pristine catalogue for one week.

This week’s release brings together two strands of Sir Adrian Boult’s Mahler in a rare collaboration between Andrew Rose and Mark Obert-Thorn. The First Symphony, recorded in stereo in 1958 for Everest with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is a performance of striking poise and architectural clarity. Boult resists grandstanding or rhetorical exaggeration, instead shaping the work as a coherent, forward-moving whole. It is a reading that still sounds remarkably modern in its balance, momentum and structural integrity.

Set alongside it are Boult’s 1950 studio recordings of Songs of a Wayfarer, preserved in mono and again featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with Blanche Thebom as soloist. Mark Obert-Thorn’s work on these performances brings renewed focus to their intimacy and control. Thebom’s singing is inward and unsentimental, while Boult draws out Mahler’s instrumental commentary with quiet authority, allowing voice and orchestra to move together as equal partners.

Pristine Classical is also marking the 125th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s death with a special promotion across its catalogue. To commemorate the occasion, all Verdi recordings are available at 15% off for a limited time, offering an opportunity to explore a wide range of historic performances at a reduced price.