Benno Walter (17 June 184723 October 1901) was a German violinist and teacher, who had associations with Richard Strauss and his family, to whom he was closely related, and also with Richard Wagner.

Career

Benno Walter was born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

on 17 June 1847, the son of (Johann) Georg Walter, a municipal musician. He trained at the Royal School of Music (Königliche bayerische Musikschule, now the

Hochschule für Musik und Theater München The University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater München), also known as the Munich Conservatory, is a performing arts conservatory in Munich, Germany. The main building it currently occupies is ...

) in Munich. He was a child prodigy on the violin, and his father took him on concert tours. In 1862 he became a trainee musician at the Munich Court Theatre. In 1864 he achieved full status as a court musician, and in 1870 he became the orchestra leader, and also began to teach at his alma mater, the Royal School of Music.K G Saur Verlag GmbH & Company, Thibaut-Zycha, Volume 10
/ref> He owned the Cremona 1720 "ex Bavarian" violin made by

Antonio Stradivari Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, '' Stradivarius'', as well as the collo ...

. The Royal House of Bavaria had acquired the violin during the early 19th Century. King

Ludwig II of Bavaria Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He is sometimes called the Swan King or ('the Fairy Tale King'). He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the ...

, the patron of Richard Wagner, presented the violin to Walter in 1870. Its later owners included Henri Verbrugghen. At the Royal School of Music, in 1872 he became the violin teacher of the 8-year-old Richard Strauss, his cousin's son.Michael Kennedy, ''Richard Strauss: Man, Musician, Enigma''
/ref> Georg Walter's sister Maria Anna Kunigunde Walter was the mother of Richard's father

Franz Strauss Franz Joseph Strauss (26 February 1822 – 31 May 1905) was a German musician. He was a composer, a virtuoso horn player and accomplished performer on the guitar, clarinet and viola. He was principal horn player of the Bavarian Court Opera fo ...

, making Franz and Benno first cousins. Richard Strauss and Benno Walter were therefore cousins once removed, but Strauss called him "cousin" (and Walter is sometimes referred to as his "uncle"). Benno Walter took over as first violinist of the Walter String Quartet when his elder brother and founder of the quartet Joseph Walter died in 1875. He toured with the quartet in Europe and America. Richard Strauss's String Quartet in A, Op. 2, was dedicated to the members of the quartet: Benno Walter, Michael Steiger, Anton Thoms, and

Hanuš Wihan Hanuš Wihan (5 June 1855 – 1 May 1920) was a renowned Czech cellist, considered the greatest of his time. He was strongly associated with the works of Antonín Dvořák, whose Cello Concerto in B minor, Rondo in G minor, and the short pi ...

, who had given it its first performance. Strauss's Violin Concerto in D minor was also dedicated to Walter, who gave the first performance, on 5 December 1882 in Vienna, with Strauss playing a piano reduction of the orchestral part. Walter also gave the first performance with orchestra, on 4 March 1890, in Cologne, with an orchestra conducted by

Franz Wüllner Franz Wüllner (28 January 1832 – 7 September 1902) was a German composer and conductor. He led the premieres of Wagner's ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre'', but was much criticized by Wagner himself, who greatly preferred the more celebrate ...

. Benno Walter had a close relationship with Richard Wagner. He played the solo violin part at the first performance of ''

Parsifal ''Parsifal'' ( WWV 111) is an opera or a music drama in three acts by the German composer Richard Wagner and his last composition. Wagner's own libretto for the work is loosely based on the 13th-century Middle High German epic poem ''Parzival ...

'' at Bayreuth in 1882, and was a frequent guest at Wahnfried. Adolf Sandberger's Violin Sonata, Op, 10 (1892) was dedicated to Walter.IMSLP: Adolf Sandberger
/ref> He died in

Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...

on 23 October 1901, aged 54.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walter, Benno 1847 births 1901 deaths German classical violinists Male classical violinists German male violinists Musicians from Munich Richard Wagner German music educators Violin pedagogues 19th-century German male musicians