Walter, Toscanini, Kleiber, Klemperer, and Furtwaengler, Berlin, 1929

Five of the foremost conductors of their generation, photographed at a banquet in Berlin in the summer of 1929. From left to right: Bruno Walter (conductor of the Berlin City Opera), Arturo Toscanini (at the time departing from the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, about to become co-director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and a regular visitor to Berlin), Erich Kleiber (conductor of the Berlin State Opera), Otto Klemperer (conductor of the Berlin State Opera's subsidiary at the Kroll Theater), and Wilhelm Furtwängler (conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra).