« He looked for voices the way some people choose paintings –because they had the colour he wanted.  »

 
The first meeting between Maureen Forrester and Bruno Walter
New York,  March 25, 1956
« As soon as I set eyes on him, I felt as if I had known him all my life. He was nearing eighty, and he had the kindest face and the most wonderful manners, which were European, almost courtly. All he knew about me was the clutch of reviews Monni (Adams, her agent) had mailed him, so before I even had my coat off, he was asking me to sing for him. He seemed so excited to hear me, I couldn’t believe it, but as I realized later, he had been searching for a new alto ever since Kathleen Ferrier’s death. He looked for voices the way some people choose paintings –because they had the colour he wanted.  (…) He asked me to sing Brahm’s Alto Rhapsody (…) After I finished singing it, he murmured, “Wunderbar, mein Kind” »

Maureen Forrester. Out of Character.