World-renowned conductor Bruno Walter was particularly well acquainted with Gustav Mahler's work, and was employed as his assistant at the Hamburg Opera at the time Mahler's Second Symphony was given it's premiere in Berlin. Walter prepared his precise and imaginative "reduction for piano" soon afterwards and in close collaboration with the composer. Bruno Walter regarded the "Resurrection" Symphony as one of his mentor's key works, from the "dramatic struggles" of the first movement to the "lightning bolt" that inspired it's sublime choral finale.