Alma Mahler: Memories of Gustav Mahler in the preamble of World War II

With the publication of Briefwechsel Alma Mahler – Allert de Lange Verlag (Correspondence Alma Mahler – Allert de Lange Publishers) the Gustav Mahler Foundation shows true spunk. The full correspondence concerning the process of writing a book does not bring the average reader on the edge of their seat.

In German at that! A bold endeavour in the Netherlands, for hardly anyone still speaks or reads the language of our eastern neighbours. Young people generally only master English, but many older people are uneasy with German as well, as evidenced by the abundant errors against the declinations in quotations. Speaking German may have been common practice once, but today it is simply no longer cool.

This at once touches upon the book the correspondence is about: Gustav Mahler: Erinnerungen und Briefe (Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters). This was written by Alma Mahler and published in March 1940 by the Amsterdam publishing house Allert de Lange. ‘Times are unfavourable for this publication’, sighs Walter Landauer, head of the German department, in one of his letters to Alma Mahler. The increasingly open anti-Semitism of the Nazis and the resultant flood of immigrants is causing anti-German sentiment.

It is a small miracle that the book could appear at all in 1940 – and even receive jubilant reviews. Also in newspaper De Telegraaf, that soon befriended the Nazis after Hitler invaded our country on 10 May. The extensive  correspondence between Alma Mahler and Walter Landauer begins in December 1938 and ends on 3 May 1940, one week before the invasion.

In between the lines we get a glimpse of the ominous times. The postal delivery is becoming more and more difficult; books get stuck at French customs; editor-in-chief Ernst Polak begs for extra assignments from exile in London because he cannot access his bank account in Vienna; Alma expresses her concern about the future and scoffs at conductor Willem Mengelberg for having the ‘Aryan habit’ never to answer letters. 

Together with her then husband Franz Werfel Alma has sought refuge in Sanary-sur-mer, a place on the Côte d’Azur where a community of artists in exile has arisen. Yet the fashionable Alma is bored to death there, as she complains in her letters to Landauer. Apart from the beautiful weather the town has little to offer, and she yearns for their sparse trips to Paris.

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Alma is grateful to Landauer for enabling the publication of her book, but is also business-like and resolute. In early 1939, she unequivocally voices her displeasure with his proposed title. It is only after endless discussion that they finally settle on Gustav Mahler: Erinnerungen und Briefe, with ‘Alma Mahler’ as the author’s name. This obviously was against Werfel’s grain, for Alma remarks she had to work on her husband quite a bit in order to pull this through.

Mahler’s widow proves to have quite some commercial instinct and a flair for pr. ‘The cover must be attractive’, she advises Landauer, and she constantly stresses the importance of translations into French and English. Along the way she provides tips as to which people to approach for promotion. At the last instant she includes conductor Otto Klemperer in her preface, ‘so that in America we may have a great friend, or else a dangerous enemy’.

At other times she displays an endearing modesty: when Mahler describes her as ‘an apparition of light’ in one of his letters, she – unsuccessfully – asks Landauer to scrap this eulogy; neither has she ever bothered to have her portrait taken.

Unfortunately her business-like instinct is not matched by her understanding of logistics. Even after the final proofs have been meticulously corrected by Ernst Polak from London, she still asks for adjustments – even though the faulty postal service has already caused several instances of confusion.

What’s more, Alma involves Werfel and others in the editing process without consulting Landauer or Polak, which causes even more misunderstandings. One can’t help feeling for Landauer, whose patience seems to know no bounds; after her umpteenth demand for adjustments, one would like to personally shake Alma vicariously. Indeed, towards the end of the correspondence even the ever accommodating Landauer can’t hide a slight trace of despair.

In their drudgery and perseverance, the authors Matthijs Boumans and Eveline Nikkels compare to Landauer. With the patience of saints they have arranged and annotated all 134 letters and provided them with additional comments. Unfortunately these lack Landauer’s accuracy, while their German is not flawless. The book would have benefited from stricter editing.

It is cleverly designed, however: through the use of different colours it is immediately clear who is writing. At the back of the book there are handy descriptions of all the people that are mentioned in the correspondence.

Briefwechsel Alma Mahler – Allert de Lange Verlag is a must-have for every Mahler fan. The wait is now for an English translation…

Boumans, Matthijs and Eveline Nikkels (2020)
Briefwechsel Alma Mahler – Allert de Lange Verlag
Edition Gustav Mahler Foundation Netherlands
Paperback, 208 pages
ISBN 9789081858830
Price: € 25

#AlmaMahler #BriefwechselAlmaMahlerAllertDeLangeVerlag #GustavMahler

Alexander von Zemlinsky – Der Zwerg: opera about our failure to respect the Other

The National Opera opened the new season 2021-22 on 4 September with Alexander von Zemlinsky’s little-performed opera Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) from 1922. The libretto is based on the short story The Birthday of the Infant by Oscar Wilde, and has a wry personal component. Now that theatres have closed once more because of a new Covid-19 lockdown the opera house offers Der Zwerg as a free stream.

Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) initially enjoyed great success as a composer, but as a Jew was forced to leave Berlin and return to his native Austria in 1933. When, five years later, the Nazis also took over power there, he fled to America, where he made a meagre living composing occasional works.

Zemlinksy is mainly remembered as a celebrity acquaintance. He is often described as a protégé of Brahms, who was so impressed by his early works that he recommended him to his publisher Simrock.

We also know him as the conductor of the amateur orchestra Polyhymnia, in which Arnold Schoenberg played a rickety cello towards the end of the nineteenth century. Zemlinsky would also be Schoenberg’s first and only music teacher, and became his brother-in-law when Schoenberg married his sister Mathilde.

MODERN BUT NOT ATONAL

Born in Vienna in 1871 to a Catholic convert to Judaism and a Sephardic-Islamic mother, Zemlinsky proved exceptionally musical at the age of four. He studied piano, composition and music theory at the Vienna Conservatory.

Although he became friends with Schönberg and was closely involved in his transition to atonality, he never completely abandoned tonality in his own compositions. Over the years, this even became an increasing bone of contention between the two, even though as a conductor Zemlinsky remained a staunch advocate of Schönberg’s music.

When Austria joined Nazi Germany in 1938, Zemlinsky fled to the United States. His music was performed less and less and he led an unremarkable and disillusioned existence; he died in 1942. The New York Times devoted an obituary to his demise, which, remained largely unnoticed in Europe. It was only in the 1960s that his music was sparsely rediscovered, in the wake of Mahler’s.

UNFULFILLED LONGING

This was mainly due to the similarities between Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and the Zemlinksy’s Lyrical Symphony that also features two vocal soloists. They perform verses by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, whom Zemlinsky knew personally. Where Mahler sings of his lost youth, Zemlinsky describes a love that is doomed to fail; both compositions are permeated with unfulfilled longing.

A recurring motif in the Lyric Symphony is a yearning quarter leap upwards, followed by a descending second, which recalls Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. This seems to be an implicit reference to Zemlinsky’s tragic affair with his composition student Alma Schindler. Although she loved him passionately, she mockingly called him ‘the dwarf’ because of his small stature.

As fate would have it, she rejected him for Gustav Mahler, who had premiered his opera Es war einmal (Once upon a time) at the Vienna Court Opera in 1899. Salient detail: Alma had met Mahler through Zemlinsky, and married him in 1902. – After which, incidentally, her own compositional development was cut short, which some may consider a deserved twist of fate.

BROKEN HEART

That Zemlinsky saw opera material in Oscar Wilde’s story The Birthday of the Infanta is very understandable from the point of view of his failed relationship with Alma. For her twelfth birthday, the Spanish princess royal receives a hunchbacked dwarf as a present. He dances exuberantly for her and the guests, unaware of his stature and the immense hilarity he causes.

When the girl gives him a white rose, he takes this as a sign of her love. – Until he sees his reflection in the mirror, realises that he has been laughed at all along and dies on the spot of a broken heart. The princess is furious and angrily demands that future birthday presents ‘please have no heart!’

VULNERABLE ARTIST

Dutch film and theatre director Nanouk Leopold made her opera debut with Der Zwerg. In her staging she zooms in on the question of whether, in a world of outward show, we are capable of respecting the Other in their Otherness. At the same time she addresses the vulnerability of the artist in our society.   

By dressing up the dwarf as a colourful bird, while the princess and her entourage are all clad in candyfloss pink attire she makes it clear the true ugliness is not in the dwarf, but in their inability to think outside the box of their own limited view of humanity.

Zemlinsky wrote scintillating music for Der Zwerg. Neoclassical and late-Romantic passages contrast with vehement expressionism, especially in the title role. This is sung by the American dramatic tenor Clay Hilley; the soprano Lenneke Ruiten sings the role of the princess. Clay Hilley made a lasting impression with his impassioned portrayal of the dwarf, whose ecstatic love and broken pride he made keenly palpable.

With this production the Italian conductor Lorenzo Viotti at once proved his prowess as the new chief conductor of Dutch National Opera.

#AlexanderVanZemlinsky #AlmaMahler #ArnoldSchönberg #ClayHilley #DerZwerg

Soprano Elise Caluwaerts: ‘The songs of Alma Mahler are grand, intense and compelling’

Elise Caluwaerts not only smoothly sings the most acrobatic coloraturas, but also impresses in pieces of which the ink is still wet. Together with Marianna Shirinyan she has recorded all of Alma Mahler‘s songs for CD – on Alma’s own grand piano.

‘The period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries has always fascinated me’, says Elise Caluwaerts. ‘From the paintings of Gustav Klimt over Claude Debussy’s Poèmes de Baudelaire to characters in novels such as Eline Vere and Hans Castorp, and the symphonies of Gustav Mahler.’

Her interest was nurtured by her environment: ‘I grew up in a family with five children, where reading books and making music were greatly stimulated. My parents, my sisters and my brother are all very well–read, and everyone plays at least one instrument. My childhood consisted of exchanging books and playing the piano four–handed or singing polyphonically with my sisters.

FEMALE ARTISTS

When she read the letters of Camille Claudel, the soprano was deeply moved: ‘She was a great artist, who was unjustly hidden away in a madhouse by her mother and brother. Through her story, I became obsessed with the fate of other female artists and eventually came across the early diaries of Alma Mahler.’

‘What struck me – apart from her rich love life – was the duality between Alma’s desire for freedom and her willingness to submit to the male artists around her. – The seed had been planted to search for her music and bring it to the stage one day.’

Alma Mahler was not the only female composer she discovered: ‘I had been singing and programming composers such as Pauline Viardot and the sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger for some time, but I also presented contemporary work by my compatriot Annelies Van Parys, for example.

IRRESISTABLE CHARM

Her fascination with Alma Mahler was given a firm boost when she met Marina Mahler, the granddaughter of Alma and Gustav: ‘We met in London a few years ago through common friends. It was a defining experience: ‘Marina’s mother Anna was the second daughter of Alma and Gustav. I immediately inquired about her grandmother, which pleasantly affected Marina. Usually people enquire after her grandfather Gustav, but I was curious to know how she remembered her grandmother, whose impressive diaries I had read.’

The acquaintance was extra special, because of the likeness between Marina and her grandmother, says Caluwaerts: ‘When contemporaries described Alma, they invariably emphasised her magnetism and irresistibility. Marina has inherited these qualities for one hundred percent, you feel inescapably attracted to her. – This goes for everyone who meets her.’

Conversely, Marina Mahler also felt a click with Caluwaerts: ‘In the meantime we have built a fine friendship. Marina told me that her mother Anna had lived and worked in Italy for years and that Alma’s grand piano still resides in her house in Spoleto. In 2010 she founded the Anna Mahler Association, which has opened the villa and Sol LeWitt’s adjacent studio to artists and musicians. I immediately decided to record Alma’s songs there, ordered all her scores and started to study them in depth.’

ALMA MAHLER SONGS: NATURAL AND SENSUAL

When Caluwaerts perused the scores, she was quite impressed: ‘Her work is full of romance, at times almost Wagnerian through-composed, complex and fascinating. What really appealed to me was her genius and spirit, which shines through all her songs. I was awed and surprised: how can the music of such a young girl be so natural and passionate, so full of sex/sensuality?’

Taken with the quality and charm of alma Mahler’s songs, the soprano immediately performed some in the Dead Ladies Show, a literary-musical programme based on the work of remarkable women from the past. ‘It is an initiative from New York that was introduced in Belgium by the writer Gaea Schoeters. I also programmed a cycle by Alma in a “regular” recital, which, due to Covid-19 I have unfortunately not been able to perform very often.’

Programming music by Alma Mahler may sound more obvious than it is, Caluwaerts continues: ‘Many programmers appear to be unfamiliar with her work. They often respond positively when I propose to sing her songs, but mainly because they think it an ‘original’ idea. After the concert I regularly get somewhat surprised reactions, when they share how brilliant they found her music. Apparently, they had different expectations.’

Soprano Elise Caluwaerts: ‘The songs of Alma Mahler are intense and sensual, and make one crave for more. If only her talent would not have been cut short!’

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POST ROMANTIC

Before Alma married Gustav Mahler, she had a relationship with his total opposite, Alexander von Zemlinsky, a composer who was exploring new ways. Unlike Gustav, he wholeheartedly supported Alma in her artistic aspirations; she studied composition with him. He was also the teacher of Arnold Schönberg, who eventually developed atonality, and established the so-called ‘Second Viennese School’, together with his students Anton Webern and Alban Berg.

Caluwaerts previously recorded Berg’s songs on CD. How do they compare with Alma Mahler’s? ‘Her style is clearly influenced by Zemlinsky, but I also hear similarities with Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder, especially in the excursions into more late- and post-romantic harmonies.’

‘Her songs are beautiful, grand, intense and compelling; they are all gems, well written and wonderful to sing! You inevitably crave for more, but unfortunately only seventeen of her songs have survived. As with Lili Boulanger, I wonder what would have happened if her talent had not been cut short.’

ALMA MAHLER’S GRAND PIANO

Alma Mahler’s grand piano in Spoleto will be played by Marianna Shirinyan. It’s a bonus that she can play Alma Mahler’s piano, but this does require some preparation, Caluwaerts acknowledges: ‘It has a beautiful sound, but the passing of time has left its mark on the instrument. Together with Steinway Italy, we are currently working on a final revision. And before the actual recording, I will bring along my friends Benedikte van Garsse and Chris Taerwe from Quatre Mains to tune it. I want the very best people there; they also tune for organisations like the Salzburg Festival.’

Besides using the original grand piano Alma Mahler played, the singer has another surprise up her sleeve. ‘Along with the songs, we also recorded some diary extracts. Via Marina, I came into contact with Cate Haste, who has written a biography of Alma Mahler in 2019, drawing on her as yet unpublished diaries.’

‘These date from the time she lived in Hollywood and was friends with people like Marlene Dietrich and Leonard Bernstein. The quotes will be recited and possibly filmed, but we are still discussing the exact details with Marina. We hope that by offering a mix of texts written by Alma in her early and later life, we can provide a good picture of her rich universe, in the context of her time.’

TIMELESSNESS

She finds it hard to name which song she likes best: ‘If you had asked me this earlier on, I would probably have chosen ‘Hymne’ and ‘Lobgesang’, but every time I read through a song I discover new elements in it. That’s what makes it so fascinating to immerse oneself in a composer.’

The hardest song to master was ‘Hymne an die Nacht’ from the collection Fünf Gesänge, published in 1924. The song has long, strung-out sentences and very surprising harmonic turns. It seems as if you never arrive, very Wagnerian, you get a feeling of timelessness.’

How did Caluwaerts prepare for the recordings? ‘I always try to get as close as possible to a work by researching the text, the poet, the composer and the circumstances in which a song was written. I try to make a personal link and seek possibilities for a new interpretation.’

‘Of course I have listened to existing recordings, but I am mainly guided by my own imagination. I try to make a personal link and seek possibilities for a new interpretation. As a singer, you must in a sense make different worlds merge into one. In essence, singing is something sensual, in which the spirit, soul, heart, head and body ultimately come together.’

The CD release was planned for January 2022 but has been postponed to May 2022 due to Covid-19.

#AlexanderVonZemlinsky #AlmaMahler #EliseCaluwaerts #MalcolmMartineau #MarinaMahler

Die Seejungfrau: poignant love story by Alexander von Zemlinsky

Alma Mahler was his star pupil and mistress, but she mocked him for his small stature and traded him for Gustav Mahler. On 16 May 2025, the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra plays Alexander von Zemlinsky’s symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau under the baton of chief conductor Karina Canellakis.

Also on the programme are Lili Boulanger’s short but compelling D’un matin de printemps and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. The concert is part of the AVROTROSVrijdagconcert and will be broadcast live on NPOKlassiek.

Celebrity relation

Zemlinksy’s tragedy is that he is mostly remembered as a relation of celebrities. He has been called a protégé of Brahms, who was so impressed by his early works that he recommended him to his publisher Simrock. He was also the sole teacher of Arnold Schoenberg, who played cello in his amateur orchestra Polyhymnia and married his sister Mathilde. Perhaps he is best known for his tragic love affair with Alma Mahler.

Alexander von Zemlinsky was born in Vienna in 1871. His father came from a Slovak-Catholic lineage but had converted to Judaism; his mother was Sephardic-Islamic. From 1886 to 1892 he studied piano, composition and music theory at the Vienna Conservatoire. Not long after, he became friends with Schönberg. Even though he did not support his twelve-tone method, as a conductor he would always defend his music.

Alma Mahler

In 1901, Zemlinsky began a relationship with his brilliant composition pupil Alma Schindler. Although she loved him passionately, she mockingly called him ‘the dwarf’ because of his small stature. As cruel fate would have it, he himself introduced her to Gustav Mahler, who had premiered his opera Es war einmal in 1899. Alma fell in love with Mahler, gave Zemlinsky the boot and married the considerably older composer in 1902. – Who promptly banned her from composing.

That same year, Zemlinsky began work on his symphonic poem Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid) in which he expressed Alma’s rejection and his heartbreak. He completed his manuscript in 1903; the premiere was two years later in Vienna. Although critics responded positively, he withdrew his work in 1908. For a long time it was considered lost, until it was recovered and performed again in 1984; today it is one of his most played compositions.

Fairy tale

Zemlinsky based Die Seejungfrau on Andersen’s fairy tale of the same name. A mermaid falls in love with a handsome prince, whom she unknowingly saves from drowning. The Sea Witch gives her legs on condition that she acquires a soul through love and marriage, but the prince weds another and she is doomed to die. Only if she kills the prince will she regain her tail fin. If she doesn’t, she will die in a spray of foam. Zemlinsky, by the way, turned the tables in his composition: he saw himself as the selfless merman who sacrifices his life for Princess Alma.

Colourful orchestration

Die Seejungfrau has three untitled movements, in which Zemlinsky gives the fairy tale hands and feet with a sublimely colourful orchestration. Slow, ominous agitations in the lowest registers of strings and brass evoke the depths of the dark sea. Frolicking motifs in the woodwinds conjure up playing mermaids, while a graceful violin solo depicts the mermaid. The orchestral fabric condenses into a raging storm that sinks the prince’s ship.

Wistful undertone

The third and final movement opens with restrained strings and lyrical lines of alto oboe and clarinets. The sorrowful undertone is broken by fierce brass and drum rolls that express the mermaid’s dismay as she watches her prince marry another.

When she resigns herself to her fate, the orchestra takes back the throttle and on gently undulating motions, the tender violin solo emerges once more. The piece ends with lines of trumpets rising to heaven and wistful plucking of the harps.

#AlexanderVonZemlinsky #AlmaMahler #ArnoldSchönberg #GustavMahler #LiliBoulanger

#Morgenschreibstunde heute mit Notizen und diesem und jenem im Blog verbracht - etwa dazu, wie ich gestern im Folkwang Museum die Ausstellung "Frau in Blau" besuchte und bei Ida Gerhardi hängen blieb:

https://mischabach.de/2025/04/03/frau-im-folkwang/

#autor_innenleben #AlmaMahler #OskarKokoschka #IdaGerhardi

[10:50] Componist Alma Mahler in goede handen bij mezzosopraan Karin Strobos | recensie ★★★★☆ 

Door het spierballenvertoon van de slagwerkers van het Noord Nederlands Orkest beleefde het publiek bij ‘Alma Mahler & Brahms’ een vliegende start in Drachten.

https://dvhn.nl/cultuur/muziek/Componist-Alma-Mahler-in-goede-handen-bij-mezzosopraan-Karin-Strobos-recensie-%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%86-45442903.html

#NederlandsOrkest #AlmaMahler #Drachten

[10:50] Componist Alma Mahler in goede handen bij mezzosopraan Karin Strobos | recensie ★★★★☆ 

Door het spierballenvertoon van de slagwerkers van het Noord Nederlands Orkest beleefde het publiek bij ‘Alma Mahler & Brahms’ een vliegende start in Drachten.

https://lc.nl/cultuur/muziek/Alma-Mahler-in-goede-handen-bij-Karin-Strobos-45441654.html

#NederlandsOrkest #AlmaMahler #Drachten

My Night with the Mahlers: Marin Alsop conducts music by Alma and Gustav with the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall.

Wonderful to hear Alma's songs live, at long last, beautifully sung by Sasha Cooke.

My review for the Guardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/25/philharmonia-alsop-review-gustav-alma-mahler-sasha-cooke

@classicalmusic #Mahler #AlmaMahler