The Symphony No. 2 in C minor by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection Symphony, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. This symphony was one of Mahler's most popular and successful works during his lifetime. It was his first major work that established his lifelong view of the beauty of afterlife and resurrection. In this large work, the composer further developed the creativity of "sound of the distance" and creating a "world of its own", aspects already seen in his First Symphony. The work has a duration of 80 to 90 minutes, and is conventionally labelled as being in the key of C minor; the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians labels the work's tonality as C minor–E♭ major. It was voted the fifth-greatest symphony of all time in a survey of conductors carried out by the BBC Music Magazine.

Walter recorded the Beethoven symphonies in stereo for Columbia in 1958-59, taping Nos. 2 & 6 in Los Angeles with orchestra of freelance and studio musicians who rose magnificently to the occasion. Walter was in his eighties, but that didn’t stop him from grabbing these works by the throat; there is no mincing around, no effusive lingering over phrases, no ponderous trudging either.

Just like the other three Bruno Walter releases in Sony Classical’s current crop of SACD reissues, this classic Beethoven/Schubert coupling benefits from the DSD transfer, which reproduces as faithfully as possible the musical content of the original reel-to-reel master tapes.