Walter conducted Mahler 3 with the VSO on 25 October 1909, and with the VPO on 6 and 7 April 1935 and on 19 August 1936 in Salzburg. I always understood that the Boult performance, which has survived, was to have been conducted by Walter, who fell ill. The 1909 performance must surely have been among the first anywhere not conducted by Mahler himself.
The interesting question is, did he ever conduct no. 6? Of the symphonies of which no recording survives, he conducted no. 7 on 6 March 1920 with the VSO and no. 8 on 14 and 15 March 1912 with the VSO, and again on 12 April 1933 and 16 March 1936. But if he conducted no. 6, it doesn't seem to have been in Vienna.
Mr Denham in your review of Boults recordings of Mahler 5,7 and 8 you state that to your knowledge Bruno Walter never conducted Mahler3.In the biography of Bruno Walter by Erik Ryding & Rebecca Pechefsky on pages 76/77 they state that Bruno Walter conducter two performances of the Third Symphony with the Konzertverein orchestra ,also stating that this was the first time in Vienna that the the symphony was not conducted by the composer.I do not have the ability to confirm the accuracy of the information but most of the book appears to be accurate. Ian Peake
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