For the older generation of music lovers Walter's name means an inimitably warm orchestral tone; music from the heart and mind. Now he is known for his recordings of Mahler, Mozart, Brahms and Bruckner.
To many of his colleagues he was a genius, the personification of Goodness. To others his ways were calculated and the man an enigma. Spanning 80 years of European culture, his ideas comment on the essential nature of music and the artist.
The programme includes film of him conducting and reminiscences by Leonard Bernstein, Karl Bohm, Lotte Lehmann, Golo Mann, John McClure, Yehudi Menuhin, Leonard Rose, Georg Solti, Isaac Stern, Otto Strasser, Wolfgang Stresemann.
Bruno Walter's words spoken by Marius Goring.
BBCtv/Time-Life/Bavarian Television
(A record of Bruno Walter conducting Mahler's 9th Symphony: Thursday, R3)