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Bruno Walter

 

(born Sept. 15, 1876, Berlin, Ger. — died Feb. 17, 1962, Beverly Hills, Calif., U.S.) German-born U.S. conductor. An associate of Gustav Mahler, he was long a faithful proponent and interpreter of Mahler's music, giving the world premieres of Das Lied von der Erde (1911) and the Symphony No. 9 (1912). He held positions in Munich (1913 – 22) and at Covent Garden (1924 – 31), but thereafter he served more often as a guest conductor than a music director. After moving to the U.S. in 1939, he often conducted the New York Philharmonic (recording as the Columbia or CBS Symphony), the Metropolitan Opera, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and he was admired for the warmth of his interpretations, primarily of the Viennese school.

For more information on Bruno Walter, visit Britannica.com.

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Music Encyclopedia: Bruno Walter
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(b Berlin, 15 Sept 1876; d Beverly Hills, 17 Feb 1962). German conductor. He studied at the Stern Conservatory, Berlin. After appointments at Cologne, Hamburg and Breslau he joined Mahler at the Vienna Court Opera in 1901, visiting Covent Garden in 1910. After Mahler's death he conducted the première of Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony. He was musical director of the Munich Opera, 1913-22, and gave there the première of Pfitzner's Palestrina (1917). He visited the USA from 1923 and returned to Covent Garden, 1924-31. In 1925 he began a long association with the Salzburg Festival. He became director of the Gewandhaus concerts at Leipzig in 1929 but with the rise of the Nazis pursued a career in Austria and with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1939 he was obliged to settle in the USA, conducting the Los Angeles SO, the New York PO and at the Met, 1941-57. From 1947 he returned to Europe, notably at the first Edinburgh Festival and in Salzburg, Vienna and Munich. He was best known for his mellow, deeply considered and often intensely expressive performances of Mozart, Mahler and Strauss.



 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Bruno Walter
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Walter, Bruno, 1876-1962, German-American conductor, b. Berlin as Bruno Walter Schlesinger. Walter studied at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. After he had conducted in several German cities, Gustav Mahler appointed him (1901) assistant conductor of the Vienna State Opera, where he remained until 1912. Walter was musical director of the Munich Opera (1912-22) and of the Municipal Opera, Berlin (1925-29), and appeared at Covent Garden and the Salzburg Festival. He made his American debut in 1923. While conductor of the Gewandhaus Concerts in Leipzig (1929-33), he was forced by the Nazis to leave Germany. He returned to the Vienna Opera in 1935 but left in 1938, when the Nazis took over Austria. Walter became a permanent resident of the United States in 1939. He conducted the Metropolitan Opera, the NBC Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and other American ensembles, being permanent conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1947 to 1949. His performances had technical accuracy, controlled balance and inner details, expressive phrasing, rhetorical emphasis, and contrasting power and lyricism. Walter was renowned as an interpreter of the German and Austrian classics and was a friend and champion of Mahler. He wrote Gustav Mahler (tr. 1941), an autobiography, Theme and Variations (1946), and Of Music and Music-Making (1961).
Dictionary: Wal·ter   (väl'tər) pronunciation, Bruno
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1876-1962.

German conductor noted for his interpretations of Mozart and Mahler.


Psychoanalysis: Bruno Walter
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1876-1962

The celebrated conductor and composer Bruno Walter was born in Berlin on September 15, 1876, and died in Los Angeles on February 17, 1962.

Born German, Bruno Walter Schlesinger was naturalized as an Austrian citizen in 1911, took French citizenship in 1938, and became an American citizen in 1948. Dropping his surname in favor of "Walter" represented an identification with Walther von Stolzing, the hero of Wagner's comic opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Walter's musical training took place in Berlin, Cologne, and Hamburg, where he met avant-garde composer Gustav Mahler, who became his mentor and whom he followed to Vienna. There he began a brilliant career as conductor and pianist, and was also Mahler's staunch defender.

Walter was an active participant on the unique and complex intellectual scene in turn-of-the-century Vienna, and his introduction to psychoanalysis occurred in 1906, while a young conductor and Mahler's protegé.Thenata crucial stage in life, he suffered from a paralyzing neuralgia and, after consulting a number of specialists, he decided to seek help from Freud. From Walter's autobiography we know the course and outcome of their meeting, which has been the subject of a small number of studies. Freud's work with Walter was unusual in that he operated less as psychoanalyst than as a psychiatric consultant.

Indeed, while the young Walter expected months of psychological investigation, Freud, after a physical exam and a single visit, prescribed sojourns in Italy and Sicily. The impact of the consultation had such an effect that Walter obeyed immediately. His subsequent treatment with Freud resembled therapy by suggestion such as was common in the nineteenth century. When Walter asked Freud if he would be able to play in front of an audience because he feared a relapse, Freud took upon himself the responsibility, assuming the role of a protective paternal figure and inducing an almost hypnotic effect upon Walter, traces of which were still discernable forty years later.

The case history of Bruno Walter was discovered by the Austrian analyst Richard Sterba, who also emigrated to the United States and was a great music lover. Since his 1951 publication, this unusual affair has come regularly under scrutiny, whether for purely historical value, as a key example of brief therapy, for Freud's use of a somatic approach, or even as a method of treating the so-called "actual neuroses."

The close-knit Viennese artistic milieu fostered fortuitous encounters. Mahler, for example, also had a therapeutic consultation with Freud; and Ernest Jones, in the second volume of Freud's biography, mentions that it took place to the intervention of Viennese neurologist Richard Nepallek, who also happened to be a relative of Mahler's wife, Alma. Others have suggested Walter as the source of the consultation, but have not been able to prove it. It is true that during the 1930s Walter collaborated with Herbert Graf, better known in psychoanalytic circles as "Little Hans." Whether these experiences intensified Walter's powerful admiration for Freud, as revealed by Sterba, is not known.

Bibliography

Chesire, Neil M. (1997). The empire of the ear: Freud's problem with music. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 6, 1127-1168.

Garcia, Emanuel E. (1990). Somatic interpretation in a transference cure: Freud's treatment of Bruno Walter. International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 17, 83-88.

Gougoulis, Nicolas, and Kapsambélis, Vassilis. (1996). Recherches sur le concept freudien des névroses actuelles. Topique, 61, 493-502.

Sterba, Richard F. (1951). A case of brief psychotherapy by Sigmund Freud. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 38, 75-80.

Walter, Bruno. (1946). Theme and variations. An autobiography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

—NICOLAS GOUGOULIS

Artist: Bruno Walter
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Bruno Walter
  • Period: Modern (1910-1949)
  • Country: Germany/USA
  • Born: September 15, 1876 in Berlin, Germany
  • Died: February 17, 1962 in Beverly Hills, CA

Biography

Bruno Walter helped to shape the very essence of interpretive style among conductors. He was born Bruno Schlesinger to an average, middle-class Jewish family. His talent was discovered early, and at age nine he entered the Stern Conservatory to study piano, making his debut at 13 with the Berlin Philharmonic. Impressed with Hans von Bülow's handling of the orchestra in Berlin, the boy decided to take up conducting. At age 17 in 1893, Schlesinger made his conducting debut with the Cologne Opera. In 1894, Schlesinger moved to Hamburg and worked under Gustav Mahler, whose influence would prove central to the development of his approach and ideals. After leaving Hamburg, the young conductor worked a succession of provincial European opera houses; in Breslau Schlesinger changed his name to Walter, Schlesinger being too common a surname in Silesia.

In 1900, Walter succeeded Schalk at the Berlin State Opera and made his first recordings, beginning a career that would stretch into the era of stereo and number in the hundreds of titles. He also conducted his first orchestral concert, the featured work being Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique. In 1901, Walter decided he was ready to take advantage of Mahler's open invitation to join the Vienna Court Opera as an assistant. Walter stayed in Vienna until 1913, taking Austrian citizenship in 1911. After Mahler died, Walter mounted the premieres of Das Lied von der Erde (Munich, 1911) and the Mahler Ninth (Vienna, 1912).

In 1913, Walter moved to Munich to lead the Bavarian Court Opera, and this is where his conducting career took wing. He revived the long-neglected Mozart operas, attracted worldwide attention for his careful handling of operas by Wagner and Verdi, and premiered significant new operas by Korngold and Pfitzner. Walter abruptly left Munich in 1923, embarking upon a variety of destinations, including the United States, Great Britain, Paris, Rome, and the U.S.S.R. In 1925, he helped institute the Salzburg Festival and was named musical director of the Berlin Municipal Opera. In 1929, Walter had a falling out with the Berlin management, and departed to succeed Wilhelm Furtwängler at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. When the National Socialists came to power under Hitler in 1933, Bruno Walter was stripped of his post in Leipzig and took refuge in Vienna. He was a guest conductor with the Vienna State Opera and was named musical director of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1935; during this time he also frequently appeared with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. When the Nazis took Austria without firing a shot in 1938, Walter was on the run again, this time to France and the Paris Conservatoire. His stay in France proved brief, as in 1939 Walter escaped to the United States.

Walter settled in Los Angeles, and remained based out of Southern California for the rest of his long life. While Walter's American period is most readily associated with the New York Philharmonic, he conducted a number of American orchestras in these years, especially the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but also the Minneapolis Symphony, the NBC Symphony, and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. After the war, Walter made a number of return visits to Vienna and other European cities, and in London recorded Mahler's lieder with Kathleen Ferrier, his own favorites among his recordings. A heart attack in 1957 caused Walter to curtail his engagements, and he made his official "farewell" appearance in Vienna in 1960 conducting Mahler's Fourth, although his true final engagement was with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an all-Brahms program given December 4, 1960.

Walter's catalog of original works contains two symphonies, choral works, and a violin sonata; however, all of his endeavors as a composer were completed before 1911. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis, All Music Guide

Discography

Bruno Walter And Vladimir Horowitz Play Tchaikovsky And Brahms

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Chopin: Concerto for piano in Em; Dvorak: Symphony No8

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Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 9 In D Major

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Brahms: Symphony No. 1; Haydn Variations; Academic Festival Overture

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Mahler: The Song Of The Earth

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Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

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Brahms: Symphony No. 3; Variations on a Theme by Haydn

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Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik; Overtures

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Mahler: Symphony No.5

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4; Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit

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Wagner: Orchestral Music

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Brahms: Double Concerto; Tragic Overture

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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 39, 40 & 41 "Jupiter"

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Mozart: Symphony No. 36 "Linz"; Symphony No. 38 "Prague"

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Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3

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Mahler: Symphonies No. 1 & No. 2; Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

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Brahms: Symphony No. 4; Tragic Overture; Schicksalslied

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Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor"; Schumann: Piano Concerto

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Bruno Walter Conducts and Talks About Mahler Symphony No. 9

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Mozart: Opera Overtures; Haydn: Symphony No. 96

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Bruno Walter Edition: Bruckner - Symphony No. 9

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Bruno Walter Edition: Haydn

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Schubert: Symphony No. 9 "The Great"; Rosamunde (Excerpts)

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Bruno Walter Editon: Strauss/Barber/Dvorák

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Bruno Walter Edition: Mozart

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Johannes Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45/Alt-Rhapsodie, Op. 53

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Bruckner: Te Deum; Mozart: Requiem

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 "Choral"

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7

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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 25, 28, 29 & 35

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Schumann: Symphony No. 3 "Rhenish"; Beethoven: Egmont Overture

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 "Romantic"

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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 36 & 39

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Mahler: Symphony No. 9

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Schumann: Symphony No.3/Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet/Ravel: Piano Concerto

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Bruno Walter Rehearses Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 7 & 9

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Strauss: Waltzes/Overtures/Brahms: Hungarian Dances/Smetana: Die Moldau

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2; Coriolan Overture

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Bruckner: Symphony No.7

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Bruno Walter Legacy, Vol. 1

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Walter Conducts Mozart and Wagner

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Chopin: Concerto No. 1/Dvorak: Symphony No. 8

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Walter Conducts Bruckner's Last Works

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Bruno Walter Rarities, From Broadcasts Of The Forties

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Bruno Walter Plays and Conducts Mozart

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Bruno Walter With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1925-1927)

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Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

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Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro/Don Giovanni

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 8; Corelli: Concerto Grosso No. 8; Handel: Concerto Grosso in B minor

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Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique; Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Selections)

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Bruno Walter Live

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Walter Conducts Beethoven & Weber

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Brahms: Symphony No.2, Op.73/Haydn: Symphony No. 96/Mozart: Serenade In G

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Walter: Schubert/Mahler

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Bruno Walter The Edition Vol.4

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Bruno Walter in Paris

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The Early Electrical Recordings (1925-1931)

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Beethoven, Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos

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Bruno Walter Conducts Brahms Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

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Bruno Walter: The Edition, Vol. 3 (Box Set)

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 3 "Eroica" & 8

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Schumann: Symphony Nos. 3 & 4

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Bruno Walter conducts music by Gustav Mahler

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6 "Pastorale"

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Bruno Walter conducts Mozart

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Bruno Walter conducts Mozart

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Bruno Walter's Early Wagner Recordings

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Bruno Walter in Paris Vol.1

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Bruno Walter in Paris Vol.1

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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 38, 39 & 41/La Finta Giardiniera Overture

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Bruno Walter In Vienna

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Brahms: Requiem Tedesco

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Brahms: Symphony No. 1; Beethoven: Overture Leonore III

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Bruno Walter in Vienna, Vol.2

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4

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Bruno Walter in London

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Mozart: Concerto, No. 14, KV 449/Concerto, No. 20, KV 466

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Schubert: Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"/Symphony No. 9 "The Great"

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Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 100, 86 & 92

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Walter Conducts Mahler

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Bruno Walter in Vienna, Vol. 1

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Bruno Walter Conducts Mahler's First Symphony

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Bruno Walter In America With Toscanini's Orchestra

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Wagner: Die Walküre

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Bruno Walter Conducts Haydn

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Brahms: Piano Concerto/Schicksalslied

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Mozart: Symphonies

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Bruno Walter In Vienna, Vol. 2

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Bruno Walter Conducts Berlioz

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Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

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Bruno Walter Conducts Mozart

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Bruno Walter, featuring Nathan Milstein (Magic Talent)

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Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D major

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Mahler Symphonies Nos 1 & 2

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Mahler Symphonies Nos 1 & 2

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Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 5 "Emperor" & 7

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Bruno Walter Conducts Wagner

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Bruno Walter conducts Wagner

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Bruno Walter Conducts Mahler

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4; Strauss: Don Juan

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4; Strauss: Don Juan

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Mozart: 6 Symphonies

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The Legenday Part One of Bach's St. Matthew Passion Conducted by Bruno Walter

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Bruno Walter on Radio

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 3; Mahler: Symphony No. 5

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Strauss: Waltzes and Overtures

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Mahler: Symphony No9

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New York Concert, 15 February 1948

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Smetana, Mendelssohn and Dvorak

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Brahms: Double Concerto; Beethoven: Triple Concerto

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Bruno Walter Recordings 1939-1940

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Mahler: Symphony No. 1 / Brahms: Haydn Variations

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Beethoven: Eroica

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale"; Leonore Overture No. 2

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 "Choral"

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Bruno Walter: First Columbia Recordings

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"; Coriolan Overture

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

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Mahler: Symphony No.9

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Bruno Walter Conducts two Romantic Masterpieces

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Bruno Walter in Vienna

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Mozart: Don Giovanni [Highlights]

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Mozart: Don Giovanni [Highlights]

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Mozart: Don Giovanni

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Bruno Walter Live

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Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique/Faust

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New York, February 1948

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Bruno Walter

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Bruno Walter Conducts the Vienna Philharmonic

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Wagner: Walküre Act 1

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Brahms: Symphony No. 2; Academic Overture; Tragic Overture

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Mahler: Symphony No. 1

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Mozart: Don Giovanni

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Bach: St. Matthew Passion

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Previously Unreleased Concert Performances

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Brahms: Symphony No. 2; Schickalslied

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Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique/Faust

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Bruno Walter Conducts Tchaikovsy, Dvorak, Smetana

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4; R. Strauss: Don Juan

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Bruno Walter: Le Registrazioni in studio degli anni venti trenta, Volume 2

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Mahler: Symphony 9

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Mozart: Symphonie K183; Requiem

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Mozart: Requiem & Eine kleine Nachtmusik

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Wagner: Die Walküre (Act One)

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Mozart: Symphonies 38, 39, 41

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Schumann: Symphonies 3 & 4

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 ("Pastorale") [SACD]

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Brahms: Symphony No. 4 [SACD]

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Bruno Walter Conducts Mozart [SACD]

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Schubert: Unfinished Symphony; Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 [SACD]

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Bruno Walter Conducts 3 Slavic Masters

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Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

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Mozart: Le Nozze Di Figaro

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Walter: Maestro Generoso, Disc 1

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Walter: Maestro Generoso, Disc 2

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Walter: Maestro Generoso, Disc 3

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Walter: Maestro Generoso, Disc 4

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Walter: Maestro Generoso, Disc 5

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Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

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Bruno Walter: Mahler Symphony No. 4 in G

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Walter Conducts Bruckner & Wagner

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Walter Conducts Mahler

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Bruno Walter: The Rare Repertoire

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Mahler: Symphony No. 1

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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 36 & 38

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Mahler: Symphony No. 9

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Bruno Walter in Concert, Vol. 1

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Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

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Schubert: Symphony No. 9

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Beethoven: Pastorale Symphony No. 6

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Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique/Ravel: Piano Concerto in D

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Mahler: Symphony No. 2

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Bruno Walter Conducts the London Symphony Orchestra

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Bruno Walter Conducts Mozart and Brahms

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Haydn: Symphonies Nos. 86, 92, 100

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From Haydn to Mahler

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Disc 1

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Bruno Walter Conducts Los Angeles Philharmonic: Weber; Mozart; Tchaikovsky

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Walter Conducts Das Lied von der Erde

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Bruno Walter

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Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique; Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole

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Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale"; Leonore Overture No. 3; Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

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Brahms: Symphony No. 1; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4; Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

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Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"; Bloch: Evocation

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Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D ("Titan")

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Mozart: Symphony No. 41 ("Jupiter"); Brahms: Symphony No. 4

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Mozart: Requiem

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Bruno Walter Conducts Bruckner & Beethoven

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Name Symphonies: Unfinished, Prague, Mircale

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Mozart: Don Giovanni

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Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro

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Bruno Walter Conducts Brahms: The Four Symphonies

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Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies (Box Set)

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Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies (Box Set)

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Walter: Maestro Generoso (Box Set)

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Bruno Walter Conducts Bruckner Symphony No. 8

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Wagner: Die Walküre, Act 1 (Complete); Act 2 (Highlights)

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Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

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Bruno Walter in Concert: With Huberman's Last Recorded Performance

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Symphony No. 1 in C major; Symphony No. 2 in D major

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

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Ravel: Concerto in D for the Left Hand; Debussy: La Mer; etc.

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Bruno Walter Conducts Mozart

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Beethoven: Missa Solemnis

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Bruno Walter Conducts Brahms, Beethoven, Wagner

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Beethoven: Symphonie n. 9

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Brahms: Symphonie No. 4; Bruckner: Te Deum

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Bruckner: Sinfonia n. 9

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Mozart: Don Giovanni

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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 38, 39, 40

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Mozart: Symphonie Nr. 38; Mahler: Symphonie Nr. 4

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Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14; Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia; Debussy: Prèlude à l'apres-midi d'un Faune

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Strauss: Don Juan; Tod und Verklärung; Till Eulenspiegel

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Famous Mahler & Bruckner Symphonies [Box Set]

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Bruno Walter Conducts Beethoven

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

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Mahler: Symphony No. 1

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Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde ('36 Live)

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4

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Mahler: Symphonie No. 2

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Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

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Mahler: Symphony No. 4

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Mahler: Symphony No. 9

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Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

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The Vienna Farewell Concert: Schubert VIII, Mahler IV

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Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 39 & 40; R. Strauss: Don Juan

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Beethoven: The Complete Symphonies

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Mozart: The Great Symphonies

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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

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Johannes Brahms: Requiem Tedesco

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Wagner: Siegfried Idyll

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Schubert: Symphonies Nos. 8 'Unfinished' & 9 'Great'

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Schubert: Symphonie D. 759; Mahler: Symphonie No. 1

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Beethoven: Sinfonie No. 9

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Brahms: Symphony No. 3; Haydn: Symphony No. 86

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Wagner: Die Walküre (Act 1; Act 2, Scenes 3 & 5)

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Mahler: Symphony No. 9

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Bruno Walter conducts Dvorák & Smetana

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Brahms: Symphony No. 1

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Mahler, Symphony No. 2 in C, Resurrection

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Mahler: Sinfonia N. 1;Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel

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Brahms: Symphony No. 4; Tragic Overture

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Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde; Three Rückert Songs

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Mozart: Requiem, KV 626

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Bruckner: Symphony No. 7; Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide Overture

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Wagner: Siegfried Idyll; Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

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Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1; Romeo and Juliet

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Dvorák: Symphony No. 8; Wagner: Prelude & Good Friday Spell from "Parsifal"

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Strauss: Tod und Verklärung; Mahler: Symphony No. 1

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Bruno Walter conducts Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms & Mahler

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Wikipedia: Bruno Walter
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BrunoWalter.jpg

Bruno Walter (September 15, 1876 – February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor and composer. One of the most famous conductors of the 20th century, he was born in Berlin, but moved to several countries between 1933 and 1939, finally settling in the United States in 1939. He was born Bruno Schlesinger, but began using Walter as his surname in 1896, and officially changed his surname to Walter upon becoming naturalised in Austria in 1911.

Contents

Biography

The young Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter, 1912

Early life

Born near Alexanderplatz in Berlin to a middle-class Jewish family, Bruno Schlesinger began his musical education at the Stern Conservatory at the age of eight, making his first public appearance as a pianist when he was nine. However, following visits to one of Hans von Bülow's concerts in 1889 and to Bayreuth in 1891, he changed his mind and decided upon a conducting career. He made his conducting début at the Cologne Opera with Albert Lortzing's Der Waffenschmied in 1894. Later that year he left for the Hamburg Opera to work as a chorus director. There he first met and worked with Gustav Mahler, whom he idolized and with whose music he later became strongly identified.

Conducting

In 1896 Schlesinger took a conducting position at the opera house in Breslau – a job found for him by Mahler. The conductor recorded that the director of this theater, Theodor Loewe, required that before taking up this position he change his name of Schlesinger, which literally means Silesian, "because of its frequent occurrence in the capital of Silesia",[1] although other sources attribute the change to a desire to make his name sound less Jewish.[2] (Note: It is often stated that Walter was his middle name and he merely dropped the surname Schlesinger. This is not true; he had no middle name and "Walter" had never been one of his names.) In 1897, he took an opera-conducting position at Pressburg, and in 1898 he took one in Riga, Latvia. Then Walter returned in 1900 to Berlin, where he assumed the post of Royal Prussian Conductor at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, succeeding Franz Schalk; his colleagues there included Richard Strauss and Karl Muck. While in Berlin he also conducted the premiere of Der arme Heinrich by Hans Pfitzner, who became a lifelong friend.

In 1901 Walter accepted Mahler's invitation to be his assistant at the Court Opera in Vienna. Walter led Verdi's Aida at his debut. In the following years Walter's conducting reputation soared as he was invited to conduct across Europe – in Prague, in London where in 1910 he conducted Tristan und Isolde and Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers at Covent Garden, and in Rome. A few months after Mahler's death in 1911, Walter led the first performance of Das Lied von der Erde in Munich, as well as Mahler's Symphony No. 9 in Vienna the next year.

Munich

Although Walter became an Austrian citizen in 1911, he left Vienna to become the Royal Bavarian Music Director in Munich in 1913. In January of the following year Walter conducted his first concert in Moscow. During the First World War he remained actively involved in conducting, giving premieres to Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Violanta and Der Ring des Polykrates as well as Pfitzner's Palestrina.

In Munich Walter was good friends with Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII).[3])

United States

Walter ended his Munich appointment in 1922 and left for New York in 1923, working with the New York Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall; he later conducted in Detroit, Minnesota and Boston.

Berlin

Back in Europe Walter was re-engaged for several appointments, including Berlin in 1925 as musical director at the Städtische Opera, Charlottenburg, and in Leipzig in 1929. He made his debut at La Scala in 1926. In London, Walter was chief conductor of the German seasons at Covent Garden from 1924 to 1931.

In his speeches in the late 1920s, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler complained bitterly about the presence of Jewish conductors at the Berlin opera, and mentioned Walter a number of times, adding to Walter's name the phrase, "alias Schlesinger." [4] In 1933, when the Nazis took power, they undertook a systematic process of barring Jews from artistic life. Walter left for Austria, which became his main center of activity for the next several years, although he was also a frequent guest conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra from 1934 to 1939, and made guest appearances such as in annual concerts with the New York Philharmonic from 1932 to 1936. At the time of the Anschluss in 1938, Walter was at a recording session in Paris; France offered Walter citizenship, which he accepted. (His daughter was in Vienna at the time, and was arrested by the Nazis; Walter was able to use his influence to free her. He also used his influence to find safe quarters for his brother and sister in Scandinavia during the war.)

Return to the United States

On November 1, 1939, he set sail for the United States, which became his permanent home. He settled in Beverly Hills, California, where his many expatriate neighbors included the German writer Thomas Mann.

While Walter had many influences within music, in his Of Music and Making (1957) he notes a profound influence from the philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He notes, "In old age I have had the good fortune to be initiated into the world of anthroposophy and during the past few years to make a profound study of the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. Here we see alive and in operation that deliverance of which Hoelderlin speaks; its blessing has flowed over me, and so this book is the confession of belief in anthroposophy. There is no part of I my inward life that has not had new light shed upon it, or been stimulated, by the lofty teachings of Rudolf Steiner ... I am profoundly grateful for having been so boundlessly enriched ... It is glorious to become a learner again at my time of life. I have a sense of the rejuvenation of my whole being which gives strength and renewal to my musicianship, even to my music-making."

During his years in the United States, Walter worked with many famous American orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic (where he was musical adviser from 1947 to 1949, but declined an offer to be music director), and the Philadelphia Orchestra. From 1946 onwards, he made numerous trips back to Europe, becoming an important musical figure in the early years of the Edinburgh Festival and in Salzburg, Vienna and Munich. His late life was marked by stereo recordings with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra. He made his last live concert appearance on December 4, 1960 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and pianist Van Cliburn. His last recording was a series of Mozart overtures with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra at the end of March in 1961. Although raised a Jew, near the end of his life Walter converted to Catholicism.[5]

Death

Bruno Walter died of a heart attack in his Beverly Hills home in 1962.

Work

Recordings

Caricature of Walter conducting

Walter's work was documented on hundreds of recordings made between 1923 (when he was nearly 50) and 1961. Most listeners became familiar with him through the stereo recordings made in his last few years, when his health was declining. But many critics agree that these recordings do not fully convey what Walter's art must have sounded like in its prime. For one thing, the late recordings sometimes have a geniality that contrasts with the more mercurial, intense, and energetic performances Walter recorded in earlier decades. For another, the late recordings focus mostly on music from Mozart through Mahler, but in Walter's youth he often conducted what was then newer music (including Mahler).

Walter worked closely with Mahler as an assistant and protege. Mahler did not live to perform his Das Lied von der Erde or Symphony No. 9, but his widow, Alma Mahler, asked Walter to premiere both. Walter led the first performance of Das Lied in 1911 in Munich and of the Ninth in 1912 in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic. Decades later, Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic (with Mahler's brother-in-law Arnold Rose still the concertmaster) made the first recordings of Das Lied von der Erde in 1936 and of the Ninth Symphony in 1938. Both were recorded live in concert, the latter only two months before the Nazi Anschluss drove Walter (and Rose) into exile.

These recordings are of special interest for the performance practices of the orchestra and also for intensity of expression. Walter was to re-record both works successfully in later decades. His famous Decca Das Lied von der Erde with Kathleen Ferrier, Julius Patzak, and the Vienna Philharmonic was made in May, 1952, and he recorded it again in studio with the New York Philharmonic in 1960. He conducted the New York Philharmonic in the 1957 stereo recording of the second symphony. He recorded the Ninth in stereo in 1961. These recordings, as well as his other American recordings, were released initially by Columbia Records and later on CD by Sony.

Since Mahler himself never conducted the Ninth Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde, Walter's performances cannot be taken as documentations of Mahler's interpretations. But in the light of Walter's personal connection with the composer, and his having given the original performances, they have another kind of primary authenticity. In his other (greatly esteemed) recordings of Mahler – various songs and the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth symphonies – there is the great added interest that he had heard Mahler's own performances of most of them.

Walter made many highly acclaimed recordings of other great Germanic composers, such as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss Jr., and Anton Bruckner, as well as of Bach, Wagner, Schumann, Dvorak, Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, and others. Walter was a leading conductor of opera, particularly known for his Mozart, and recordings of some from the Metropolitan Opera and the Salzburg Festival are now available on CD. So are performances of Wagner, Verdi, and Beethoven's Fidelio. Also of great interest are recordings from the 1950s of his rehearsals of Mozart, Mahler, and Brahms, which give insight into his musical priorities and into the warm and non-tyrannical manner (as contrasted with some of his colleagues) with which he related to orchestras.

Compositions

Walter only composed in his early years. Later he decided to be "not a composer." His compositions include:

  • Symphony No. 1 in D minor (recorded by CPO #777 163-2, 2008)
  • Symphony No. 2
  • Symphonic Fantasia
  • String Quartet
  • Piano Quintet
  • Sonata for Violin and Piano in A (recorded VAI vaia #1155, 1997)
  • Songs
  • Choral Works

Written works

  • Gustav Mahler's III. Symphonie. In: Der Merker 1 (1909), 9–11
  • Mahlers Weg: ein Erinnerungsblatt. In: Der Merker 3 (1912), 166–171
  • Über Ethel Smyth: ein Brief von Bruno Walter. In: Der Merker 3 (1912), 897–898
  • Kunst und Öffentlichkeit. In: Süddeutsche Monatshefte (Oktober 1916), 95–110
  • Beethovens Missa solemnis. In: Münchner Neueste Nachrichten (30. Oct. 1920), Beethoven suppl., 3–5
  • Von den moralischen Kräften der Musik. Vienna 1935
  • Gustav Mahler. Wien 1936
  • Bruckner and Mahler. In: Chord and Discord 2/2 (1940), 3–12
  • Thema und Variationen - Erinnerungen und Gedanken. Stockholm 1947
  • Von der Musik und vom Musizieren. Frankfurt 1957
  • Mein Weg zur Anthroposophie. In: Das Goetheanum 52 (1961), 418–21
  • Briefe 1894–1962. Hg. L.W. Lindt, Frankfurt a.M. 1969

Notable recordings

Source: Grove Music Online

References

  1. ^ Walter, Bruno; James A. Galston (1946.). Theme and variations: an autobiography. New York: A.A. Knopf. pp. 89. 
  2. ^ Andrew Ford (2002-06-29). "Bruno Walter: A World Elsewhere". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/28/1023864649779.html. Retrieved 2007-06-04. 
  3. ^ Rabbi David G. Dalin. The Myth of Hitler's Pope (Washington: Regency Publishing Inc., 2005) p. 50
  4. ^ Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise (2007).
  5. ^ Dalin. The Myth, p. 50
  • Holden, Raymond (2005). The Virtuoso Conductors: The Central European Tradition from Wagner to Karajan. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300093268. 
  • Ryding, Erik; Pechefsky, Rebecca (2001). Bruno Walter: A World Elsewhere. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300087136. 
  • Walter, Bruno (1946). Theme and Variations: An Autobiography. New York: A.A. Knopf. OCLC 564814. 
  • Walter, Bruno (1961). Of Music and Music-Making. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. OCLC 394450. 

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