Walter Braunfels

[2] Braunfels studied law and economics at the university in Munich until after a performance of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde he decided on music.

[1] In February 1918 he was wounded at the front and in June 1918 on his return to Frankfurt converted from Protestantism to Catholicism, composing his Te Deum of 1920–21 "not as music for musicians but as a personal expression of faith".

[5] At his farewell concert as pianist on 19 January 1952, he played Bach's D major Toccata, Beethoven's piano sonata no.

The war passed peacefully for Braunfels and his wife as they had succeeded in fleeing to Switzerland, though his three sons were conscripted into the Wehrmacht.

[6] Walter Braunfels was well known as a composer between the two world wars but fell into oblivion after his death.

His Phantastische Erscheinungen eines Themas von Hector Berlioz (1914) is a giant set of orchestral variations; "structurally the work has something in common with Strauss' Don Quixote, on LSD … the orchestral technique also is quite similar, recognizably German-school, with luscious writing for violins and horns, occasional outbursts of extreme virtuosity all around and a discerning but minimal use of additional percussion," noted David Hurwitz of ClassicsToday.