The last chapter's conclusions outlined the lines of enquiry required in the present chapter by the sometimes problematic ‘assembly of witnesses’ brought to the fore in the search for Brahms's authentic voice. In the following pages the musicians – most but not all of them conductors – who in a variety of ways provided (or are alleged to have provided) lines of authority traceable to the composer are presented in more or less chronological order with the exceptions of the first, Alexander Berrsche, and the last, Walter Blume, whose importance lies now in the documentary evidence they left to posterity. It should be noted that, where the careers of recording conductors are too well known to merit a full biographical account, they are outlined here only in so far as the context requires.

Alexander Berrsche: Munich's recording angel (or Beckmesser?)

The first witness in the search for any authentic ‘tradition’ or line of authority traceable to the composer is the outstanding critic Alexander Berrsche (1883–1940). Berrsche was a pupil of Max Reger and wrote for the Augsburger Postzeitung (1907–12) and the Münchener Zeitung (1912–40). Along with other essays, his critical reviews were collected posthumously in Trösterin Musika, an 800-page volume published in two editions, the first in 1942 (Munich: Callweg), the second in 1949 (Munich: Hermann Rinn). The latter added items on musicians verboten in 1942, including the Jewish Gustav Mahler and Bruno Walter and the self-exiled Busch brothers; the footnoted references hereafter are to the page numbers of this edition. Berrsche's vantage point in Munich means that some desirable names are missing – Abendroth, Toscanini and the Brahms performances of Weingartner and Fritz Busch (he commented on the Beethoven performances of both, with some reservations on account of their, as he thought, quick tempos). In his concert reviews there is an excusable focus on those with posts in Munich during his time, such as Franz Fischer, Hans Pfitzner and Hans Knappertsbusch. Nevertheless, Berrsche's detailed comments on the Brahms style of those conductors he did hear are invaluable. For him, none measured up to Steinbach and it is with this conductor, so central to the understanding of what Brahms required in the performance of his orchestral music, that we commence the roll call of witnesses in the search for authenticity of style.