Das Lied von der Erde
Walter worked closely with Mahler as an assistant and protégé. Mahler did not live to perform his "Das Lied von der Erde" or "Symphony No. 9", but his widow, Alma Mahler, asked Walter to premiere both. Walter led the first performance of "Das Lied "in 1911 in Munich and of the Ninth in 1912 in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic. Decades later, Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic (with Mahler's brother-in-law Arnold Rosé still a concertmaster) made the first recordings of "Das Lied von der Erde" in 1936 and of the Ninth Symphony in 1938. Both were recorded live in concert, the latter only two months before the Nazi Anschluss drove Walter (and Rosé) into exile.