Bruno Walter

During his lifetime, he did more to champion the music of Gustav Mahler than almost any other conductor. In 1960, Leonard Bernstein, who became Mahler's greatest champion in later years, was about to record Mahler's Symphony No. 1, when he heard Walter's recording of it, and out of admiration for the performance, refused to make his own recording of the symphony until after Walter's death. Bruno Walter died in 1962, and Bernstein made his own first recording of the symphony in 1966.

It was Bruno Walter who was supposed to have conducted the New York Philharmonic on the afternoon of November 14, 1943, but he had come down with the flu, so then-assistant conductor Leonard Bernstein replaced him, and became famous overnight. His successful debut with the Philharmonic made the front page of the New York Times. Fourteen years later, Bernstein would be appointed conductor of the orchestra, and become the best-known and most popular conductor in the United States, and one of the most famous in the world.

Another daughter, Marguerite, was shot by her husband, Robert Neppach, before he killed himself in Zurich in 21 August 1939.

Bruno Walter was born on September 15, 1876 in Berlin, Germany as Bruno Walter Schlesinger. He was married to Elsa Korneck.