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Born near Alexanderplatz to a 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 in 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 MahlerGustav Mahler ( July 7 1860 May 18, 1911) was best known in his own time as one of the leading Austrian conductors of his day, but is now remembered as an important composer linking the late 19th century with the Modern musical period, particularly for hi, with whose music he would later be strongly identified.
After three seasons at the opera houses in Breslau, Pressburg and Riga, Walter returned in 1900 to Berlin, where he assumed the post of Royal Prussian Conductor at the Berlin Royal Opera House; his colleagues there included Richard StraussRichard Strauss ( June 11, 1864 September 8, 1949) was a German composer of classical music particularly noted for his tone poems and operas. He was also a noted conductor. He was born on June 11, 1864 in Munich, Germany, the son of Franz Strauss who was and Karl MuckKarl Muck ( 1859 1940) was a German conductor. Muck, Karl Muck, Karl Muck, Karl.. While at Berlin he also conducted the Berlin premiere of Der arme Heinrich by Hans PfitznerHans Pfitzner ( May 5, 1869 May 22, 1949) was a German composer and self-described anti- modernist. His best known work is probably the opera Palestrina''. He is the author of "Futuristengefahr" ("Danger of Futurists"), written in response to Ferruccio Bu, a composer who would become a lifelong friend of his.
In 1901 Walter joined Gustav Mahler at the Court Opera in ViennaThis article is about the city and federal state in Austria. For other places or things called Vienna, see Vienna (disambiguation). Vienna ( German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austria's nine federal states Bundesland Wi, conducting Aida as his debut. The following years Walter's conducting reputation soared as he was invited to conduct throughout Europe, in Prague, LondonLondon is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England, and with over seven million inhabitants in the Greater London area, is the second-most populous conurbation in Europe (after Moscow). From being Londinium the capital of the Roman province of Bri (where in 1910 he conducted Tristan und Isolde and Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers at Covent GardenCovent Garden is an area of central London most noted for its flower, fruit and vegetable market (now moved to Nine Elms, Vauxhall) and for the Royal Opera House to its north. Covent Garden' is properly the area of London bounded by High Holborn, Kingsway) and in RomeRome ( Italian and Latin Roma is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region. It is located on the lower Tiber river, near the Mediterranean Sea, at 41°50'N, 12°15'E. The Vatican City State, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman. 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.
Back in Europe Walter was re-engaged for several appointments, including Berlin (1925, as musical director at the Städtische Opera, Charlottenburg) and Liepzig (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 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, France offered Walter citizenship, which he accepted; however, in November 1, 1939, he eventually set sail for the United States, which became his eventual permanent home. Beverly Hills remained Walter's home for many years, and amongst his many expatriate neighbors include the German writer Thomas Mann.
In his years at United States he 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 with a series of Mozart overtures with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra at the end of March the next year.
Bruno Walter died of a heart attack in his house at Beverly Hills in 1962.