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BiographyBorn near Alexanderplatz in Berlin to a middle-class Jewish family, Bruno Walter 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, Walter changed his mind and decided upon a conducting career. He made his conducting début at the Cologne Opera with Lortzing's Waffenschmied in 1894. Later that year he left for the Hamburg Opera to work as a chorus director, where he first met and worked with Gustav Mahler, whom he idolized and with whose music he would later be strongly identified.
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 throughout Europe -- in Prague, 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 Ninth Symphony in Vienna the next year. Although Walter became an Austrian citizen in 1911, he left Vienna to become the Royal Bavarian Music Director in Munich in 1913. In January the next 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. Walter ended his appointment in Munich in 1922, and left for New York, the United States in 1923, working with the New York Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall; he later conducted in Detroit, Minnesota and Boston.
In 1933, when the Nazi party began to bar his musical appointments in Germany, Walter left for Austria. Austria would remain the 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. When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, France offered Walter citizenship, which he accepted; however, in November 1, 1939, he eventually set sail for the United States, which became his permanent home. Beverly Hills remained Walter's residence for many years, and his many expatriate neighbors include 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 Orchestra (where he was musical adviser from 1947 to 1949), 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. Bruno Walter died of a heart attack in his Beverly Hills home in 1962. RecordingsImage:Bruno walter.jpg Bruno Walter's recording of Brahms' 2nd and 3rd symphonies Walter's work was documented on hundreds of recordings made between 1923 (when he was nearly 50) and 1961. Most listeners become 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 Ninth Symphony, 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. The latter was recorded live in concert, 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 quite successfully in later decades. He recorded the Ninth in stereo in 1961, and one of his most cherished recordings is his 1951Das Lied von der Erde with Kathleen Ferrier, Julius Patzak, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Walter also made a 1960 studio recording of Das Lied with the New York Philharmonic. Nonetheless, Walter regretted that he could never hear Mahler himself conduct the Ninth and Das Lied; these performances should not be considered documentations of the composer's interpretations. Walter's various other recordings of Mahler - various songs and the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth symphonies - are highly prized. Walter's personal connection with the composer would by itself add great interest to them (in most of these works Walter did have direct experience of the composer's performances). More importantly, their musical qualities strike many critics and musicians as outstanding. Walter made many highly acclaimed recordings of other great Austrian composers, such as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, 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. WorksWalter only composed in his early years. Later he decided to be "not a composer." His compositions include:
Written works
DiscographyA complete Bruno Walter discography (including, for example, a dozen recordings of the Mozart Symphony No. 40) can be found at http://www.geocities.com/walteriana76/BWrecordsB.htm Some samples from Walter's discography include:
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