Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter was one of the great German conductors of the 20th century, and a respected Mahler interpreter. He was also an accomplished pianist, a prolific recording artist, and a composer during the first half of his life. He was born in 1876 to a Jewish family in Berlin. He was interested in music from a young age, and he began attending the Stern Conservatory in Berlin when he was eight years old. There he studied piano with Heinrich Ehrlich, music theory with Ludwig Bussler, and composition with Robert Radecke. At nine, he made his public debut as a pianist. He was inspired to conduct in 1889, after he saw a performance of the famous conductor Hans von Bülow with the Berlin Philharmonic. Walter found employment as a vocal coach with the Cologne Opera shortly afterward, and he made his conducting debut there in 1894. He left a short while later to accept an appointment at the Hamburg Opera as chorus director and assistant to Gustav Mahler. Walter’s time with Mahler had a great impact on his ideals and conducting style. After that position came to an end in 1896, Mahler helped him find employment at the Stadttheater in Bresleau as the second conductor. From 1898 to 1900 he conducted in Riga, Latvia, followed by a longer contract to conduct the Royal Opera of Berlin for five years. He left Berlin in 1901 to work with Mahler a second time at the Vienna Court Opera. Walter conducted his own Symphony No. 1 in Vienna in 1909, and his reputation grew exponentially in 1910 after a very popular series of performances in Prague, Rome, and at Covent Garden. It was around this time that he decided that he had more to offer as a conductor than as a composer and he stopped composing. After Mahler passed away in 1911, premieres of his Das Lied von der Erde, and Symphony No. 9 were both conducted by Walter, as requested by Mahler’s widow. He lived in Munich from 1913 to 1922, where he was appointed the Royal Bavarian Music Director, and director of the Bavarian State Opera. He made his United States debut in 1923 with the New York Symphony Orchestra, and from 1924 until World War I he was active in Berlin, Paris, and London. In the 1930s Walter performed and recorded both as an accompanist to Lotte Lehmann, and as the conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic. He moved permanently to Beverly Hills after the onset of World War II in 1939, and he based his career in the United States from then on. During this time, he worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minneapolis Symphony, and the major ensembles of New York, such as the New York Philharmonic, the NBC Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera. When the war ended, he resumed working with European orchestras through the late '40s and early '50s. His recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Vienna Philharmonic from 1952 was especially successful, and his records with the New York Philharmonic from this period were also highly acclaimed. After suffering a heart attack in 1957, he was forced to reduce his pace as a traveling guest conductor. In his final years he recorded the works of Mozart, Brahms, and Beethoven with the Colombia Symphony Orchestra with a gentler and more mature approach than in his earlier recordings. Walter died from a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills in 1962.
© RJ Lambert /TiVo
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Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique - Bruno Walter
Classical - Released by Urania on 1 Jan 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms - Variations on a Theme By Haydn, Op. 56a
Bruno Walter, The Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by West Oak Records on 25 Apr 2012
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Bruno Walter Plays Mozart
Concertos - Released by Unchained Melody on 15 Apr 2012
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Schubert, F.: Symphony No. 5 / Rosamunde (Excerpts) (Columbia Symphony, B. Walter) (1955)
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart, W.A.: Symphonies Nos. 25 and 28 (Walter) (1954)
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1 Jan 2000
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Walter - Previously Unreleased Concert Recordings
Irmgard Seefried, NBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 1 Aug 2011
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Mozart: Violin Concerto No.3 G-Dur, Kv 216
Zino Francescatti, Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Classically on 3 Apr 2024
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Franz Joseph Haydn, Vol. 1
Bruno Walter, Amadeus String Quartet, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by ArnebAudio on 8 Feb 2024
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vol. 33
Bruno Walter, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by ArnebAudio on 10 Apr 2024
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Franz Joseph Haydn, Vol. 4
Bruno Walter, Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire
Classical - Released by ArnebAudio on 12 Feb 2024
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, vol. 26
Bruno Walter, Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by ArnebAudio on 27 Mar 2024
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Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 6 (Mono Version)
New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1957
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Beethoven: Symphonie No. 3 "Héroïque" (Mono Version)
New York Philharmonic, Bruno Walter
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hommage à Bruno Walter, vol. 6 (Mono Version)
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphonie No. 8 (Mono Version)
Bruno Walter, New York Philharmonic
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1953
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The World's Greatest Symphonies, Vol. 7
Classical - Released by Documents 2 on 25 Nov 2016
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Richard Wagner: „Portrait"-Vol.4
Classical - Released by Documents on 1 Sep 2008
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Bruno Walter: „Maestro Generoso"-Vol.2
Classical - Released by Documents on 1 Sep 2008
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Mozart: Symphonies
Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Pop - Released by Grammphon on 1 Dec 2021
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Schubert: Symphony No. 9, D.944 (The Great) in C Major
Classical - Released by Ibis on 1 Apr 2019
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Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60
Symphonic Music - Released by P4Y on 25 Nov 2015
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