From: kos@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu (Bob Kosovsky)
Subject: Bruno Walter Papers
Reply-To: kos@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
Organization: Computer Center, CUNY Graduate School, New York NY 10036
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 13:47:21 GMT

I've seen no postings lately (finally everyone got sick of the endless Glass
threads) so I felt it was time to post something about what I've been
doing for the past two years.

During this time I have finished processing the papers of the conductor
Bruno Walter.  Today they will be sent off to be microfilmed, so that
by the time of everyone's winter vacation the collection will be 
available to the public.

First a bit of background.  Bruno Walter died on February 17, 1962, leaving
Lotte Walter Lindt (his daughter) as the only survivor.  One of her major
projects in the years following his death was editing a collection of
her father's letters (which appeared as "Briefe, 1894-1962" pub. by 
S. Fischer Verlag, 1969 - it has not been translated into English).  In
researching this project she acquired copies of many of Walter's letters
in other archives (such as those of Hugo von Hofmannstahl, Hans Pfitzner,
and many others), supplementing a sizable collection.  I'm not quite
sure of the dates, but sometime in the late 1960s she discovered that
she had cancer and took her own life.  Responsibility for the Walter
estate then fell into the hands of Wolfgang Streseman, a former conductor
who had been very close to the Walter family, and son of the leading
pre-Nazi German politician.  A foundation was set up (Walter's recordings
do still earn royalties) in order to dispense funds and the materials
of the estate.  For some reason unknown to me, most of Walter's scores
were separated from his papers.  These are now housed in a conservatory
near Vienna.  His papers found their way to the New York Public Library.
It has taken a great deal of time on the part of several people
(most notably Richard Koprowski, currently at the sound archive of
Stanford University) to process this collection, but it is finally
done.

So what does it include?  Here's a listing of the series:
Series I:	General correspondence
Series II:	Correspondence concerning publications
Series III:	Schedules of concerts
Series IV:	Interviews (and correspondence concerning interviews)
Series V:	Scrapbooks (1896-1900, 1932-34, 1950)
Series VI:	Programs
Series VII:	Historical letters
Series VIII:	Historical documents
Series X:	Photographs, 5" x 7"
Series XI:	Photographs, 8" x 10"
Series XII:	Photographs, 12' x 16"
Series XIII	Photographs, 16" x 21"
Series XIV:	Books by Walter
Series XV:	Presentation scores and facsimiles

I have estimated series I-VIII to be about 14,000 leaves of paper.
Most of the correspondence is dated after 1938.  In her introduction to
the "Briefe" Lotte Walter Lindt explained that much of the pre-war
materials were kept in Austria when the Walters left and became
citizens of France in 1938.  That house was bombed during the war and
all of its contents were destroyed.  Among the few items that survived
(i.e. that were not stored in the Austria house) were a nice cache of
letters from Mahler.  Many of these have been available in Knud Martner's
"Selected Letters of Gustav Mahler" but he did not access to the originals
(he based his edition on an earlier collection of Alma's), but a few are
still awaiting publication.

Not mentioned in the series above are materials that were separated from
the collection and cataloged separately many years ago.  These include
many Mahler manuscripts that Gustav or Alma had given Walter, including
Alma's copy of the 5th symphony containing corrections by Gustav (the
Adagietto was recently issued in facsimile).

What kind of picture of Walter emerges from this material?  Though
ample for a collection of letters, there is not enough material for a
critical biography.  Let me give two examples.  In Walter's biography,
"Theme and Variations" he gives a small paragraph mentioning the death
of his eldest daughter, Grete, saying that an unfortunate accident
befell her.  In fact, she was shot by her husband, Gerhard Neppach
(an architect) because she wanted to divorce him.  From other sources
I have found out that Grete Walter had been having an affair with
Ezio Pinza.  How odd that Walter doesn't directly indict Neepach;  it's
also strange that he went on to have a very warm relationship with 
Pinza and his family.  But it was part of his character to avoid any
direct confrontations.  Perhaps it was too painful, or perhaps it 
was his inability to penetrate deeply into certain areas.
(Footnote:  This took place on the eve of the German invasion of
Poland.  Walter was staying in Lucerne, and was forced to cancel
a concert.  He called his friend Arturo Toscanini who substituted
for him.  Interestingly, since the New York Public Library also has
the papers of Toscanini, we have an actual recording of that concert,
made August 30, 1939 in Lucerne - it contains a performance of the
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with Horowitz as soloist.)

The other example concerns his activities as
conductor of the Munich State Opera  (1913-1923) and in Berlin
(1923-1933).  One would never guess from his correspondence that Walter
was known as being rather biased against hiring fellow Jews.  I have
heard from more than one source that since he was one himself (his
family name was actually Schlesinger, which Mahler advised him to
change), he developed a reputation not to show favoritism to his
co-religionists, and therefore went out of his way to discriminate
against them.

I find it interesting that there is very little discussion about
actual music.  The few occasions where Walter opens up concerns 
selection of singers for various performances (I can remember two
interesting exchanges, one concerning why only Kathleen Ferrier could
sing Das Lied von der Erde, and why Roberta Peters was unsuitable for
the part of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberfloete).
Towards the end of his life, I noticed that actual musical discussion
diminished to a minimum, while Walter's interest in Anthroposophy and
the work of Rudolf Steiner seemed to consume him.  On several
occasions, where correspondents ask him for his method of musical
interpretation, he can only say that he is unable to discuss this
because it is purely based on his own intuition.  (Perhaps I'm
too musicological, but this comment, said not only to fans but to
significant individuals as well, seems to betray a certain lack
of penetration - perhaps related to the same inability to penetrate
the issues mentioned above).  Many often complain of Toscanini's supposed
failure to broaden his repetoire at the end of his life.  I think
such a criticism is better directed at Walter, whose repertoire
was restricted to an even smaller group of works.

The stereotype image we have of Walter - that of a benevolent, kind
individual, who believed in the power of music to fufil moral
education - seems to be partly an effort of Walter's to manufacture
his own image.  There are occasions goes out of his way to tell
people what they should think of him, and he comes off sounding
rather patronizing.

Walter did not seem to be terribly interested in recordings, so there
is nothing like the archive that came with the Toscanini estate.
There are a few special items, like recordings of interviews with
sundry artists describing Walter (these were issued by Columbia
Records in the 1950s and after his death) but those expecting test
recordings or broadcasts should look elsewhere.

The collection should be available for study by mid- to late
December.

Bob Kosovsky
Graduate Center -- Ph.D. Program in Music(student)/ City University of New York
New York Public Library -- Music Division
bitnet:   kos@cunyvms1.bitnet        internet: kos@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
Disclaimer:  My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions.
Newsgroups: rec.music.classical