Originally posted by Richard Tarleton
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Just finished "Gustav Mahler - Memories and Letters" by Alma Mahler. An odd book, I don't know what to make of it. The original publication date is given as 1940 but in an undated preface she says "I wrote this book many years ago". Was the preface written much later, or was the book written earlier and only published in 1940? Lots of anecdotes, vignettes, snapshots of people but I'm left unclear as to her feelings for Mahler then or later - the Freud anecdote near the end is probably the most revealing. Being Mrs Mahler was clearly not a barrel of laughs. There are a few glimpses into her soul but one cannot tell how candid she is being. No mention of Walter Gropius 
The Orchestra of WNO is doing an Alma-themed concert on 18 January - Zemlinsky Maeterlinck Lieder, Berg violin concerto (in memory of Manon Gropius, her daughter), four of Alma's songs and the adagio from the 10th.
Oh yes - she seems in no doubt about the order of the movements in the 6th (the work she writes most interestingly about) - She says it was the "most completely personal of his works, and a prophetic one". She hated Kindertotenlieder.
The Orchestra of WNO is doing an Alma-themed concert on 18 January - Zemlinsky Maeterlinck Lieder, Berg violin concerto (in memory of Manon Gropius, her daughter), four of Alma's songs and the adagio from the 10th.
Oh yes - she seems in no doubt about the order of the movements in the 6th (the work she writes most interestingly about) - She says it was the "most completely personal of his works, and a prophetic one". She hated Kindertotenlieder.
Alma's book was originally published as Gustav Mahler: Erinnerungen und Briefe by Allert de Lange in Amsterdam in 1940. The first English edition appeared in 1946 and since then there have been four English editions each one enlarged and revised in 1968, 1969 (U.S.), 1973 and 1990. This last is the edition I have, edited by Donald Mitchell and Knud Martner, Sphere Books Ltd, ISBN 0 7474 03171.
Alma's reputation as a truthful witness to Mahler's life has been steadily demolished over the years with many glaring errors, convenient omissions and downright lies and it has become increasingly difficult to rely on her testimony at all. Henry-Louis de la Grange has done much in his huge biography in exposing Alma's numerous deceptions, letter deletions and the like. To be sure, Mahler must have been a difficult man to live with but Alma comes across as something a good deal worse and she has done Mahler scholars and enthusiasts few favours.
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