Music: Song to Remember

On the podium was 83-year-old Bruno Walter, who learned the works of Gustav Mahler from the composer himself. Standing beside him was a singer scarcely more than a third his age—Maureen Forrester, 29, the contralto whose big-time career was launched under Walter's baton. With the forces of the New York Philharmonic last week, Conductor Walter and Contralto Forrester gave Carnegie Hall audiences an unforgettable performance of one of Mahler's greatest works, Das Lied von der Erde, whose premiere Walter conducted in Munich half a century ago.

Although The Song of the Earth consists of six songs translated from the Chinese, Mahler himself...