Talk:Bruno Walter

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Dropping the name Schlesinger Adopting the name Walter

Firstly it says he dropped the name in 1911. Then we're told it happened in 1896. He adopted Austrian citizenship in 1911.

What this leads me to think is that he unoficially dropped Schlesinger in 1896, but it remained his legal surname until he became Austrian in 1911, when it was dropped entirely. Is that correct? JackofOz 06:30, 14 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Walter was born "Bruno Schlesinger"--no middle name; I've seen his birth certificate. (See Ryding and Pechefsky, p. 423, n. 1.) He never said that "Walter" was his middle name, though in his early career, after he'd changed his professional name to Bruno Walter, a few critics referred to him as "Bruno Walter Schlesinger"; this form usually appeared in anti-Semitic newspapers and was meant as a slight. Many reference works have unfortunately either listed "Walter" as his official middle name or ambiguously included "Schlesinger" in brackets. In fact, even pieces that I have written have sometimes been edited to include "Walter" as BW's middle name. Let's get it right here.

Regarding the official change of his name to Bruno Walter, it probably happened in 1911, as Walter writes in his autobiography, though his dates are often wrong, and I never saw official documentation verifying the date 1911. --Erik Ryding

Someone added that BW sometimes used "Walter" as his middle name when he changed from "Schlesinger" to "Walter." I have never seen this in any of BW's writings--only in the writings of some early critics, who sometimes referred to BW as "Bruno Walter Schlesinger."70.23.202.52 03:43, 11 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's now become the received wisdom that he was born "Bruno Walter Schlesinger" and that he simply dropped the surname. This is so ingrained in mythology that it appears in the most learned of sources, and is all over the internet. I myself believed this version until Erik Ryding's post above, for which I am grateful. However, this, which needs a subscription to access fully, proves that the name Walter was entirely made up:

Bruno chose Walter as his stage name, "thinking of Walter von Stolzing, Walther von der Vogelweide, and of Siegmund in Die Walküre, who would have ...".

I've amended the header to this thread in order not to perpetuate the myth. I'd like to include this information in the article, but we need the full article to get a better handle on his reasons for the choice of name. And there may be copyright issues. -- JackofOz (talk) 01:34, 6 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The current article has the phrase "although other sources attribute the change to a desire to make his name sound less Jewish" and then links to a newspaper review of Ryding and Pechefsky. The book review is not a scholarly source and does not substantiate its claim that Walter changed the name for a less Jewish one. By contrast, Ryding and Pechefsky in their book detail how the name change took place and make it clear that (a) the name change was forced on Walter by Theodor Lowe as a condition for Walter' first conducting post, which was in Breslau (as it was then called) in Silesia, (b) Lowe's problem with Schlesinger was that it was very common in Silesia, not that it sounded Jewish, (c) as Walter was considering the change, Gustav Mahler and his sisters pressured Walter to change his name, and in fact sent to Loew a letter with several names suggested by Walter, and that Lowe had chosen the name Walter from among them (d) that Walter found name changing a "terrible" experience. I plan to remove the "other sources" sentence, therefore, and to incorporate the fact that the change was mandated by the person who hired him to his first independent conducting post.Brozhnik (talk) 13:41, 10 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Writings?

How about mentioning his writings, e.g. books, essays and autobiography (see the german version) in the article? Bagradian 07:43, 26 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:Bruno walter.jpg

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Recordings

Bruno Walter's first recording was with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1900, selections from Bizet's Carmen. This is recalled by the conductor in a recorded interview (A Talking Portrait) on Sony's Original Jacket Mahler & Bruckner boxed set.THD3 (talk) 13:10, 25 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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Gustav Mahler

I don't the article gets across the closeness of the relationship with Mahler, for example that he was with Mahler at mahler's deathbed (and Mahler's wife was in a different room), or that the two of them spent a summer together in the hunting lodge. Dan88888 (talk) 18:34, 28 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Working with Kathleen Ferrier

I see there’s only a single passing reference to Ferrier on this page. You may like to note Walter’s personal tribute to the singer: "The greatest thing in music in my life has been to have known Kathleen Ferrier and Gustav Mahler—in that order." (Leonard, Maurice (1988). Kathleen: The Life of Kathleen Ferrier, 1912–1953. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-173464-9. P.246.), which caused the Earl of Harewood to comment: “Very few singers have earned so powerful a valedictory from so senior a colleague." (Harewood, Earl of (2004). "Ferrier, Kathleen Mary". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/33118.) Valetude (talk) 00:12, 5 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Wife?

His elder daughter Lotte was in Vienna at the time, and was arrested by the Nazis.

Thre has been no mention of a wife or family up to this point. Valetude (talk) 20:01, 23 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]