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A bit of history

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I've been reading Michael Kennedy's biography of Mahler, and picked up this little tale:

In 1894, 2 of the greatest conductors in history were both working in Hamburg: Hans von Bulow conducting the symphony orchestra and Gustav Mahler conducting the opera. Von Bulow and Mahler were friendly towards one another, enough so that Mahler decided to give his First Symphony another try with Von Bulow's orchestra. It had bombed at its premiere in Budapest and a subsequent performance in Cologne (w/ Von Bulow conducting), but Mahler had recently reworked parts of it and removed the Blumine movement. The reaction to the new version had gone from 'catastrophe' to 'mixed'.

Also in Hamburg the day of the concert was a recent graduate of the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. This man, named Schlesinger, had been trained to be a concert pianist, and was an amateur composer as well, but after meeting Von Bulow in Cologne a year earlier, decided to give conducting a try. He was in Hamburg to see if he could get Von Bulow to write him a letter of recommendation. He attended the concert that night, conducted by Mahler and featuring Mahler's First Symphony. He was immediately spellbound by this, the most magnificent piece of music he had ever heard. He sought Mahler out after the concert, and decided, on the basis of hearing this First Symphony, that if he were to become a conductor, he wanted Mahler to be his mentor.

It just so happened that Pollini, the theatre director for the Hamburg Opera, had recently canned both Mahler's assistant conductor and his chorusmaster. Mahler had a reputation as an authoritarian and perfectionist, but a lot of this is due to the fact that Mahler's own musicality was so innate, he couldn't understand how other musicians under his baton couldn't naturally understand the music as he did. The young man Schlesinger did not know this, meeting Mahler for the first time, but he did have the trait of being brutally honest. The interview went something like this:

M: "Do you have any references?"
S: "Yes, Herr Von Bulow".
M: "Good. Do you play the piano well?"
S: "Yes, quite well."
M: "How is your sight-reading?"
S: "Excellent."
M: "Good. Then there shouldn't be a problem".

Schlesinger went back to Von Bulow for the letter of reference, and Von Bulow convinced the young man to drop his Jewish surname and go by Bruno Walter. One reason Mahler decided to hire the young Walter rather than a more establlished conductor is that Walter was just starting out as a conductor - Mahler could mold the youth to his way of conducting, rather than trying to retrain an experienced conductor. Walter and Mahler remained colleagues and close friends for the remaining 17 years of Mahler's life. Mahler asked Walter to work on the piano reduction of the recently finished second symphony, Walter heard Mahler conduct the premieres of #'s 3-8, and Brumo conducted the premieres of #9 and Das Lied von der Erde after Mahler's death. But the First was always very special to him, and was his favorite Mahler symphony.

And this is why you should listen to Walter's recording of the First. So what if he uses the Columbia Symphony Orchestra? - they play well for him. So what if it was recorded 65 years later, when Walter was in his 80's? - Bruno's enthusiasm for the piece shines through. No one, besides possibly Mahler himself, has more love for this piece than Bruno, and no one could treat it with more respect, give every nuance it's due, and get to the core of the piece.


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Topic - A bit of history - The Real Dave 06:08:57 06/05/00 (20)


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