Over the last forty years Jerry Bruck has gained a reputation as a recording engineer specializing in classical music. He is a founding member of the Gustav Mahler Society of New York and of the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft in Vienna. He is also a life member, former governor, and a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society.

In 1962 Jerry Bruck presented the first radio broadcast cycle of Mahler's music over New York City's WBAI-FM. These 14 two-hour programs included extensive biographical material and interviews with musicians and others who knew Mahler. Research for this project led him to Mahler's widow, Alma, whom he helped convince to rescind her ban on the completion of her husband's Tenth Symphony. Austrian Television recently videotaped his recollections of Alma for "BIG ALMA," a 90-minute biographical survey of her life and times.

He also began a lasting friendship with Mahler's daughter, Anna. Since then, his researches have brought him into close contact with musicians and scholars who further encouraged his avid interest in the music and life of the composer. He has a small collection of Mahler memorabilia: original manuscript pages, letters, and a copy of his death mask.

Jerry Bruck was directly responsible for the release of the suppressed first movement of Mahler's early cantata Das klagende Lied, and his early Piano Quartettsatz. He also assisted with the American premieres of those works and of the Symphony No. 10. He produced and engineered the first commercial recording of Mahler's five-movement Symphony No. 1 (with "Blumine") for CBS/Odyssey, and co-engineered a later recording of the same work with James Judd and the Florida Philharmonic for Harmonia Mundi. In 1971 Jerry Bruck was awarded the Mahler Medal of the Bruckner Society of America.

In addition to records and CDs, Jerry Bruck has recorded sound for music-oriented film and video projects. His recording of Joe Wheeler's performing version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony (to which he also contributed the liner notes) is available from the Colorado MahlerFest, for whom he has also recorded Mahler Symphonies 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, Das klagende Lied and Das Lied von der Erde, live in concert. Other recent CD releases of Mahler's music include the Third and Sixth Symphonies for Titanic Records (the latter also with his liner notes).

Currently he is working with Jason Starr on a video documentary about the Mahler Second Symphony. Another more controversial project has been the preparation of a "White Paper" on Mahler's Sixth Symphony, "Undoing a 'Tragic' Mistake," published by the Kaplan Foundation. Intended to restore the correct order of its inner movements in modern performances and recordings it has now been widely accepted as authoritative.

i© 1997 Posthorn Recordings