The Mahler Broadcasts 1948-1982

NEW YORK
PHILHARMONIC

Mahler in New York

Major F u n d i n g by

Rita E. and Gustave M. Hauser

Track Listing
Disc 1 (68:22) 1 - 4 S y m p h o n y N o . 1 in D m a j o r Sir J o h n Barbirolli, conductor (January 10, 1 9 5 9 ) 5 - 8 Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ( S o n g s of a Wayfarer) William Steinberg, conductor; Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone (November 27, 1964) Disc 2 (79:53) 1 - 5 S y m p h o n y N o . 2 in C m i n o r ("Resurrection") for O r c h e s t r a , S o p r a n o and Alto Solos, and Mixed C h o r u s Z u b i n M e h t a , conductor; Kathleen Battle, soprano; M a u r e e n Forrester, contralto ( M a r c h 7, 1 9 8 2 ) Disc 3 (75:49) 1 - 5 S y m p h o n y N o . 3 in D m i n o r Pierre Boulez, conductor; Yvonne M i n t o n , (October 2 3 , 1 9 7 6 ) 15:25 52:40

D i s c 7 (69:26) 1 - 4 S y m p h o n y N o . 7 in B m i n o r Rafael Kubelik, conductor (February 2 8 , 1981) Disc 8 ( 7 6 : 4 4 ) 1 S y m p h o n y N o . 7 in B m i n o r (conclusion) 2 - 7 D a s L i e d v o n d e r E r d e ( T h e S o n g o f the E a r t h ) B r u n o Walter, conductor; Kathleen Ferrier, mezzo-soprano; Set S v a n h o l m , tenor (January 18, 1 9 4 8 ) Disc 9 ( 7 8 : 0 0 ) 79:53 1 - 10 S y m p h o n y N o . 8 in E-flat m a j o r L e o p o l d Stokowski, conductor (April 9, 1 9 5 0 ) Disc 10 ( 7 9 : 5 0 ) 1 - 4 S y m p h o n y N o . 9 in D m a j o r 97:31 Sir J o h n Barbirolli, conductor ( D e c e m b e r 8, 1 9 6 2 ) Disc11(77:08) Symphony N o . 10 in F-sharp minor 1 AndanteAdagio D i m i t r i M i t r o p o u l o s , conductor (January 16, I 9 6 0 ) 2 Purgatorio D i m i t r i M i t r o p o u l o s , conductor ( M a r c h 16, 1 9 5 8 ) 3 - 5 T h e Conductors Speak About Mahler B r u n o Walter, L e o p o l d Stokowski, a n d Sir J o h n Barbirolli 6 - 9 W i l l i a m Malloch's "I R e m e m b e r M a h l e r " Interviews with musicians who played u n d e r M a h l e r (Broadcast by K P F K on July 7, 1964) Disc 1 2 ( 7 4 : 1 8 ) 1 - 10 W i l l i a m Malloch's "I R e m e m b e r M a h l e r " (conclusion) 30:03 25:41 4:17 14:32 106:28 79:50 78:00 58:05 87:54

mezzo-soprano

D i s c 4 (77:27) 1 S y m p h o n y N o . 3 in D m i n o r (conclusion) 2 - 5 S y m p h o n y N o . 4 in G m a j o r , for O r c h e s t r a a n d S o p r a n o S o l o G e o r g Solti, conductor; I r m g a r d Seefried, soprano (January 13, 1 9 6 2 ) Disc 5 (73:02) 73:02 55:30

1 - 5 S y m p h o n y N o . 5 in C - s h a r p m i n o r Klaus Tennstedt, conductor (June 18, 1 9 8 0 ) Disc 6 (73:30)

1 - 4 S y m p h o n y N o . 6 in A m i n o r D i m i t r i M i t r o p o u l o s , conductor (April 10, 1955)

73:30

Book

cover:

Table of Contents
F r o m t h e M u s i c D i r e c t o r Kurt Masur Gustav Mahler: The Unanswered Questions A Mahler Timeline Mahler a n d the N e w York Philharmonic: T h e Truth B e h i n d the L e g e n d Henry-Louis d e L a Grange 22 Barbara Haws 8 12 16

Cover detail from Mahler's copy of his First Symphony (first edition Josef Weinberger, Vienna: 1899)

Inside front

cover:

N e w York's M u s i c a l C u l t u r e : T h e T r a n s f o r m a t i o n o f a n O r c h e s t r a Howard Shanet M a h l e r a t t h e M e t Robert Tuggle G u s t a v M a h l e r a n d the G u a r a n t o r s : 56 82

A stylized "GM" used by Mahler for his letterhead.

Right: Mastheads from some

T h e M a n a g e m e n t o f G e n i u s Jack Kamerman M a r y S h e l d o n : A W o m a n o f S u b s t a n c e Marion Casey MAHLER AS CONDUCTOR Mahler as Conductor: The New York Philharmonic Performances

98 108

of the local newspapers that preserved critical opinion of Mahler's compositions and conducting in New York.

120 132

W h a t the Critics Wrote, 1 9 0 9 - 1 9 1 1 Mahler's M a r k e d Scores in the N e w York P h i l h a r m o n i c A r c h i v e s Paul Banks W a r a n d P e a c e : T h e M a h l e r V e r s i o n Alan Rich MAHLER AS COMPOSER Mahler as Composer: The New York Philharmonic Performances B r u n o W a l t e r : P r o t e c t o r a n d P r o p h e t Erik Ryding M i t r o p o u l o s , Walter, a n d M a h l e r : A Player's Perspective Bernstein's L a t e - N i g h t T h o u g h t s on M a h l e r Mahler at the New York Philharmonic: T h e P l a y e r s R e m e m b e r Robert Sherman Acknowledgments Jack Gottlieb James Chambers

140 160

176 200 210 218

230 245

From the Music Director

KURT MASUR

T
8

he secret of an orchestra's style, as conductors and players know, is passed down

from one generation to another by the musicians themselves and is based on their shared experiences over the course of many years. T h e New York Philharmonic is one of the world's leading Mahler orchestras, and its Mahler

tradition reaches back to Gustav Mahler himself, who conducted the Orchestra in his last

years and also served as its Music Director. Having maintained certain performing traditions from Mahler's day up to the present, and having continually kept his work in the repertoire throughout that period, the Orchestra has proven beyond any doubt its outstanding c o m m i t m e n t to his music. T h e musicians of the New York Philharmonic play together as an astonishingly flexible instrument. The performers are not just slavishly following the baton; when you make music

with them, they breathe together with you, instilling life into every phraseand this is crucial for Mahler. As for the Orchestras soloists, they are well-educated masters of their instruments and repertoire; they know how to strike the right balance between independence and ensemble playing. When you hear solos played by the horn, the trumpet, the oboe, the clarinet, the flute, you discover that the Orchestra has many different personalities, yet they all come together as a unified body in the collaborative effort of making symphonic music. I myself have found that Mahler often inspires the best playing from the N e w York Philharmonic. I remember the 10,000th concert in 1 9 8 2 , with Zubin Mehta conducting Mahler's Second Symphony. T h i s was long before I came here as the Music Director. It was an incredible performance; in fact, I can hardly think of a more committed performance of the "Resurrection" than that one, which is included in this collection. T h a t performance, incidentally, convinced me that the N e w York Philharmonic had not only great ability but also a kind of honesty. T h e musicians were not only playing with startling accuracy and beautiful sonority: they understood the spirit of Mahler's work. C o n d u c t i n g Mahler with an orchestra like the N e w York Philharmonic is a particular pleasure, because the Orchestra understands the music so deeply. If an orchestra doesn't know the music through and through, doesn't feel the music, then you are forced to discuss every phrase and every transition in too much detail, and the performance loses its spontaneity. For Mahler's music you need a kind of freedom. In a performance, you have to feel safe making transitions a little differently from what you did at the last rehearsal or the last concert. You have to feel free to be spontaneous. With the N e w York Philharmonic, I breathe, and everybody breathes with me. 1O It is well known that Mahler was much aware of death, and his awareness is m a d e evident

in his musicthink, for example, of his funeral marches. A number of Mahler's close relations died young. Yet there is also a very real affirmation of life in his symphonies. I feel that people in his time were aware of their mortality because they wanted to be aware, in order to appreciate and savor the life that they had. If you wake up every morning and feel grateful to see the sun again, you will know that every day is a gift. Every religion in the world grapples with the problem of life's brevity. If we lived eternally, maybe we would underestimate the gifts we have. But since we know we are granted only a limited time in this world, we try to reconcile ourselves to our mortality and to discover a purpose in our lives. Mahler confronted the problem in a wonderful way on two occasionsin the "Abschied" of Das Lied von der Erde, with the words ewig, ewig ("forever, forever"), and in the last movement of the Ninth Symphony, which without the use of words also transmits the message of ewig, the confrontation with eternity. As you will hear in the performances gathered on this set, the Orchestra has long known Mahler's message. T h e earliest broadcast we present, Das Lied von der Erde under Bruno Walter, dates back half a century, and we can already sense the players' deep understanding of this great composer's art and philosophy, an understanding that had developed over the course of several decades and that extends, as the other broadcasts prove, up to the present day. As with our first collection of broadcast recordings, we are deeply indebted to G u s and Rita Hauser, true friends of the N e w York Philharmonic, for their generous support, without which we could not preserve these historic performances.

Under Kurt Masur

the New

York Philharmonic

has

recorded Mahler's First and Ninth 11

Symphonies, as well as the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Hkan Hagegrd , for Teldec.

Gustav Mahler: The Unanswered Questions

by BARBARA HAWS

D
12

id Mahler's conducting venture in N e w York make a lasting impact on the City and the Philharmonic? D i d the N e w York musicians he hired and trained

leave an enduring impression on the musicians that followed decades later? C a n we hear the ghost of Gustav Mahler in present-day Philharmonic

performances? S o m e would answer in the absolute affirmative while others would be

vehemently skeptical. It is this lack of consensus, this ambiguity that makes interpreting the

The continuity of the Philharmonic's Mahler tradition is demonstrated in this snapshot, in which the musicians' tenure extends from Mahler to Mehta. Back row: (left to right) Roberto Sensale (1923-57), Benjamin Kohon (1908-43), Simon Kovar (1923-49); middle row: Bruno Labate (1908-43), Engelbert Brenner (1931-72), Albert Goltzer (1938-84); front row: Martin Ormandy (1929-66), and William L. Feder (1921-49).

Mahler tradition in N e w York so rich. W h a t we learned when we started delving into this topic was that our assumptions of the past were not necessarily holding true: Was Mahler miserable in N e w York? Were the w o m e n "Guarantors" running the Philharmonic in 1909 predatory ogres who contributed to Mahler's death? D i d the audiences despise and avoid Mahler's music prior to 1960? Was it even possible to hear Mahler's music before Bernstein? Just when a particular answer seemed to be at hand, a new piece of evidence, or a varied interpretation, or even a new personality once overlooked emerged to start the questions coming once again. These essays discuss both Mahler as a conductor in N e w York and the evolving reaction over the last 90 years to Mahler the composer. As the keeper of and chief explorer in the Archives of the N e w York Philharmonic, I have often been struck by the way history has been rewritten by myth and personal perception. W h a t began as a companion b o o k to

New York musical life that had preceded him is overlooked. To place Mahler in a context, we turned to the Philharmonic's longtime historian, Howard Shanet. After hearing of the discoveries that Jack K a m e r m a n and Marion Casey had made regarding the Guarantors (those who ran the Philharmonic in 1 9 0 9 ) , B o b Tuggle, Director of Archives at the Metropolitan Opera, revealed that there was new information at the M e t that he didn't think existed anywhere else: "Mahler at the Met" was immediately brought into the fold. We then searched to find physical evidence of Mahler himself and so turned to Paul Banks to help sift through our enormous score and part collection. O n e of the myths we were laboring underwhich was not borne out by our Mahler performance list or the papers of Mengelberg, Walter, Mitropoulos, and Stokowskiwas that there were virtually no performances of Mahler prior to Leonard Bernstein. We did find that even though these ardent Mahler champions were performing his works, it was in the face of unrelenting critical attacks. T h e Philharmonic musicians themselves, both present and past, rounded out our c o m m u n i t y of collaborators with matchless anecdotes and insights. These accounts and essays when read together do not always arrive at the same conclusionsthe differences may be subtle, but they still exist. Have we found all that we set out to find? Absolutely not. There are more reviews to interpret, more box-office receipts to assess, more personal diaries to track down, more scores to pore through, more lists to decipher. But we had to stop somewhere, and as everyone knows, Mr. Mahler and N e w York are both very complicated subjects.

complement the 1 2 - C D set grew to be a scholarly study investigating myriad questions from inconsistencies that kept p o p p i n g up. Since the Philharmonic has been fairly assiduous about keeping the smallest details of its history, we knew it would be useful to share all of the performance and recording data that had been accumulated in the Archives. We then started asking and investigating what others thought about the place of N e w York and the Philharmonic in the Mahler lore. We asked Maestro Masur to recount his impressions when standing before the same Orchestra where Mahler had been Music Director. We were also intrigued to see that Henry-Louis de La Grange provided a point of view that confirmed what we saw in the contemporary newspaper reviews: Mahler was a success at the Philharmonic and even expressed pleasure at

14

Barbara Haws, Archivist/Historian of the New York Philharmonic since 1984, is the Executive Producer of the New York Philharmonic Special Editions recording label.
15

being in N e w York. But in so many accounts on Mahler, the rich, vital, and sophisticated

1892

JUNE-JULY London, Royal Opera, Covent Garden: GM conducts 18 guest performances SUMMER Works on the Second Symphony (in Steinbach am Attersee) SUMMER Composes last movement of the Second Symphony SUMMER Composes second to sixth movements of Third Symphony DECEMBER 13 Berlin: GM premieres his Second Symphony SUMMER Completes first movement of Third Symphony APRIL GM leaves Hamburg and becomes Conductor of the Vienna Court Opera OCTOBER Appointed Artistic Director of the Vienna Court Opera NOVEMBER 6 First concert with the Vienna Philharmonic SUMMER Completes Fourth Symphony (Maiernigg am Wrthersee) FEBRUARY 17 Vienna: GM premieres Das klagende Lied SUMMER Works on the Fifth Symphony and songs NOVEMBER 25 Munich: GM premieres his Fourth Symphony MARCH 9 Marries Alma Maria Schindler (1879-1964) JUNE 9 Krefeld, Germany: GM premieres his Third Symphony SUMMER Completes Fifth Symphony NOVEMBER 3 Birth of his daughter, Maria Anna (1902-1907)

A Mahler Timeline
compiled by MICHELE SMITH
1860
JULY 7 Gustav Mahler bom in Kalischt, Bohemia. Son of Bernhard Mahler (1827-1889) and Marie Mahler, ne Hermann (1837-1889). One of 14 children, of whom eight died in infancy SEPTEMBER Enters Conservatory of the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna (diploma: June 1878) SUMMER First appointment as conductor (Hall, Upper Austria) OCTOBER Completes Das klagende Lied (first version) Composes Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Conductor at the German Theater, Prague

1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1900 1901

1875 1880 1884-85 1885-86 1886

1902
AUGUST Appointed as Second Conductor at the Leipzig Municipal Theater JANUARY 20 Leipzig: Conducts first performance of Carl Maria von Weber's opera Die drei Pintos (supplemented and revised by GM) MARCH Completes First Symphony AUGUST First version of Totenfeier (later revised as first movement of the Second Symphony) NOVEMBER 20 Budapest: GM premieres his First Symphony

1903 1904
SUMMER Works on Sixth Symphony OCTOBER GM's first performance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam JUNE 15 Birth of his second daughter, Anna Justine (1904-1988) SUMMER Completes Sixth Symphony; begins Seventh Symphony

1889

16

1891

MARCH Resigns from Budapest; appointment as First Conductor in Hamburg

17

OCTOBER 18 Cologne: GM premieres his Fifth Symphony NOVEMBER 6 New York: Walter Damrosch conducts United States premiere of GM's Fourth Symphony with the New York Symphony Society

NOVEMBER 1 Opens his second New York Philharmonic season DECEMBER 5 GM conducts his second United States tour with the New York Philharmonic

1911

1905

MARCH 24 Cincinnati: Frank van der Stucken conducts United States premiere of Fifth Symphony with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra SUMMER Completes Seventh Symphony FEBRUARY 15 New York: Wilhelm Gericke conducts New York premiere of GM's Fifth Symphony with the Boston Symphony Orchestra MAY 27 Essen: GM premieres his Sixth Symphony SUMMER Works on Eighth Symphony MAY Resigns as Director of the Vienna Court Opera JULY 12 Death of his elder daughter; GM diagnosed as having heart disease DECEMBER 21 Arrives in New York; stays at Majestic Hotel JANUARY 1 New York: GM's conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera (Tristan und Isolde) SUMMER Works on Das Lied von der Erde (Toblach, South Tyrol) SEPTEMBER 19 Prague: GM premieres his Seventh Symphony DECEMBER 8 New York: GM conducts United States premiere of his Second Symphony with New York Symphony Society SPRING Accepts contract as Conductor of reorganized New York Philharmonic SUMMER Works on Ninth Symphony NOVEMBER 4 Gives first concert as Conductor of the New York Philharmonic DECEMBER 16 New York: GM conducts United States premiere of his First Symphony with the New York Philharmonic FEBRUARY 23 GM conducts first United States tour with the New York Philharmonic SUMMER Sketches for the Tenth Symphony (unfinished) AUGUST 25-28 GM consults Siegmund Freud in Leiden SEPTEMBER 12 Munich: GM conducts premiere of his Eighth Symphony

JANUARY 17 New York: GM conducts the New York premiere of his Fourth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic FEBRUARY 21 New York: GM conducts for the last time MAY 18 Mahler dies in Vienna at 11:05 p.m. NOVEMBER 20 Munich: Bruno Walter premieres Das Lied von der Erde JUNE 26 Vienna: Walter premieres GM's Ninth Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic MAY 9 Cincinnati: Ernst Kunwald conducts United States premiere of GM's Third Symphony with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra MARCH 2 Philadelphia: Leopold Stokowski conducts United States premiere of the Eighth Symphony with Philadelphia Orchestra APRIL 9 New York: Stokowski conducts Philadelphia Orchestra in New York premiere of the Eighth Symphony DECEMBER 14 Philadelphia: Stokowski conducts United States premiere of Das Lied von der Erde with the Philadelphia Orchestra MAY 6-21 Amsterdam: Willem Mengelberg conducts eight concerts of GM's orchestral works with Concertgebouw OCTOBER 4-21 Vienna: Oskar Fried conducts Mahler cycle at Vienna Konzertverein (all symphonies except Eighth) APRIL 15 Chicago: Frederick Stock conducts United States premiere of GM's Seventh Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra FEBRUARY 1 New York: Artur Bodanzky conducts the New York premiere of Das Lied von der Erde with the Friends of Music FEBRUARY 28 New York: Mengelberg conducts New York premiere of GM's Third Symphony with New York Philharmonic

1906

1912 1914 1916

1907

1908

1920

1909

1921 1922

1910

18

19

1923

MARCH 8 New York: Mengelberg conducts New York premiere of GM's Seventh Symphony with New York Philharmonic 1959-60 OCTOBER 12 Vienna: Franz Schalk conducts the premiere of the Adagio and Purgatorio movements of GM's Tenth Symphony (Krenek edition) DECEMBER 2 New York: Mengelberg conducts New York Philharmonic's first performance of GM's Fifth Symphony JANUARY 3 New York: Mengelberg conducts New York Philharmonic's first performance of Das Lied von der Erde OCTOBER 16 Boston: Serge Koussevitzky conducts United States premiere of GM's Ninth Symphony with Boston Symphony Orchesrra NOVEMBER 19 New York: Koussevitzky conducts New York premiere of GM's Ninth Symphony with Boston Symphony Orchestra JANUARY 4-APRIL 12 New York: Emo Rapee conducts eight concerts in Mahler Festival at Radio City Music Hall with Radio City Music Hall Symphony and Schola Cantorum DECEMBER 20 New York: Walter conducts New York Philharmonic's first performance of GM's Ninth Symphony DECEMBER 11 New York: Dimitri Mitropoulos conducts United States premiere of GM's Sixth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic DECEMBER 6 Erie, Pennsylvania: Fritz Mahler conducts the United States premiere of the Adagio and Purgatorio movements of GM's Tenth Symphony (Krenek edition) APRIL 6 New York: Stokowski conducts the New York Philharmonic's first performance of GM's Eighth Symphony MARCH 13 New York: Mitropoulos conducts New York premiere of the Adagio and

Purgatorio movements of GM's Tenth Symphony (Krenek edition) DECEMBER 31 -APRII, 2 4 New York: New York Philharmonic Mahler Festival (36 concerts by Mitropoulos, Leonard Bernstein, and Walter) commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Mahler's birth and the 50th Anniversary of his first season as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic A U G U S T 13 London: Bertold Goldschmidt conducts premiere of GM's entire Tenth Symphony (Deryck Cooke edition) with the London Symphony Orchestra NOVEMBER 5 Philadelphia: Eugene Ormandy conducts United States premiere of the entire Tenth Symphony (Cooke edition) with the Philadelphia Orchestra APRIL 25 New York: William Steinberg conducts New York Philharmonic premiere of GM's Tenth Symphony (Cooke edition) SEPTEMBER 26-OcTOBER 25 New York: New York Philharmonic Mahler Festival at Carnegie Hall. Nine concerts of symphonies and songs conducted by Erich Leinsdorf, James Levine, and Pierre Boulez

1924

1926

1964

1929

1965

1931

1968

1976 1942

1945

1947

1949

1950

20

1958

21

Mahler and the New York Philharmonic:

The Truth Behind the Legend

by HENRY-LOUIS DE LA GRANGE

B
22

efore coming to Mahler the musician, let me say a word or two about Mahler the man. My view, acquired in the course of 40 years of intensive research, while

reading several thousand books, letters, reports, reminiscences, articles, reviews, after writing some three or four thousand pages of biography, is that Mahler was True, Freud

not the morbid, tormented neurotic he is so often depicted to have been.

believed that artistic creation was always in s o m e way connected with neurosis. T h e great composers of the past could all have been considered as neurotic, in one way or other, but

Mahler in New York, 1909.

Mahler was no more so than Beethoven, C h o p i n , Schumann, or Brahms for instance, certainly far less than Bruckner or Tchaikovsky. A knowledge of Mahler's personality and behavior in everyday life, of his courage in the face of adversity, of the dignity, the reserve he displayed when fate struck hardest, all these traits of character make nonsense of the traditional image. T h e origin of the legend can easily be detected: Alma survived Mahler by some 50 years. Whereas he never wrote or spoke about his relationship to Alma, she later published two books which describe Mahler as an "ascetic," a sickly man for whom all pleasures were suspect, to whom, furthermore, his daughter's death and the heart specialist's diagnosis were deadly blows. T h e somber nature of some of Mahler's most popular works, such as the Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde, helped

Mahler was incapable of sparing himself, of not seeking perfection in every realm. But that surely is the normal state of mind of all great creative artists. When, in 1 9 0 7 , Mahler accepted the post offered him at the Metropolitan Opera, his eldest daughter was still alive. However, by the time he left for the United States six months later, he had indeed suffered three blows: his child's death, the doctors' diagnosis of his weak heart, and the attitude of the Viennese administration, which had done little or nothing to keep him at the head of the Opera. At that time America had a bad reputation a m o n g German and Austrian musicians. T h e United States had surely been described to him, in terms of the European clich, as "the land of the almighty dollar." Richard Strauss, who had earlier conducted a symphony concert in Wanamaker's, the large N e w York department store, during shopping hours, could not take Mahler seriously when he spoke of his fears that he would not be understood in America. He had merely replied: "But my dear Mahler, you are and will always remain a child! Over there, all one does is climb on to the p o d i u m , do this [gestures of a conductor], and then this [gesture of counting money]." Assuredly, Mahler was a realist as well as an idealist, and his decision to leave for N e w York was not only motivated by his desire to turn his back on Vienna and Europe. He was anxious to earn money for his family and to curtail his professional activities, so as to have more time to compose. Although he had, before leaving the Vienna Opera, received offers from other European institutions, the disappointments he had experienced there were such that he longed to start anew on another continent. However, Mahler's career at the Metropolitan O p e r a is not part of my subject in this essay. What matters is that he earned his greatest and most unanimous triumph there on 20 March 1908 with Fidelio, a work more admired than loved, which had never been popular 25

propagate a legend that appealed to the preference most of us secretly harbor for the easy and simplistic image rather than the more complicated but less romantic reality. T h u s Mahler became known as a typical fin-de-sicle artist, morbid, tormented, forever obsessed with the sad realities of human destiny and tortured by the demon of introspection. T h e real Mahler did indeed suffer all his life from two chronic ailments, hemorrhoids and inflamed tonsils, but they in no way prevented him from leading an intensely active life. T h e real Mahler had more than a normal person's ration of vigor and stamina. T h e real Mahler enjoyed putting his physical strength and endurance to the test: he loved to swim long distances, climb mountains, take endless walks, and go on strenuous bicycle tours. He of course led three different and simultaneous lives, and pursued three different careers that of virtuoso conductor, that of theater director, and that of composer. A n d what is more, his inflexible idealism, his practice of music as a religion, did not allow him to consider any 24 of them as a minor activity on which he could permit himself to husband his resources.

anywhere in the world. There was a tremendous outburst of applause after the Leonore Overture N o . 3: Henry Taylor Parker, of the Boston Evening Transcript, thought that "more than rediscovered," Fidelio had been "born anew" after having "fallen in musty disrepute at the Met." T h e New York Evening Sun wrote: "Tremendous, nothing less, was the rapt attention. . . . T h e house went crazy in the dark. T h e riot over Mahler equaled that over Caruso in Il Trovatore." T h e next day, Mahler was praised by the overwhelming majority of critics, more enthusiastically, perhaps, than he had ever been in Europe. Despite the Met's shortcomings at the time, Mahler enjoyed his first months in N e w York. He was delighted therefore when, towards the end of his second season at the Met, new plans for his future in N e w York developed as an aftermath of the memorable performance of Fidelio, and particularly of the third Leonore Overture. M r s . George Sheldon, the wife of a N e w York banker who was closely associated with J. P. Morgan, had been so impressed that she decided that "Mr. Mahler's influence was deeply felt at the Metropolitan Opera H o u s e this winter and it would be a pity if he should not have a chance to conduct purely orchestral music with an orchestra of his own" (New York Times, 19 April 1 9 0 8 ) . T h e original plan was to create a Mahler orchestra, but eventually it was found wiser to reorganize the oldest N e w York orchestral society, the Philharmonic. Since he had left the Vienna Philharmonic in 1 9 0 1 , Mahler had conducted many orchestras as a guest, but he had not had one entirely in his hands. In any case, a symphonic vehicle such as the Boston Symphony, which gave far more concerts in a season than the average European orchestra, was something European conductors could only dream of. After

26

Special Symphony Society Bulletin announcing Mahler's impending concerts, 1908.

a whole life spent in the "penitentiary" of opera houses, Mahler was of course delighted by Mrs. Sheldon's unexpected proposal. However, when it was m a d e to him, he had already been negotiating for s o m e time with Walter D a m r o s c h , who planned to engage him to conduct three concerts with the N e w York Symphony Orchestra. T h e short period of time during which Mahler negotiated with both Damrosch and M r s . Sheldon was to have unforeseeable and highly negative consequences for Mahler's N e w York career. Henry Krehbiel later wrote in his vicious obituary of Mahler: "While still under contract to the Symphony Orchestra he entered into an arrangement with a committee of women to give three concerts with the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society." T h e truth is that, at the time when the Philharmonic's proposal was made, during the last two weeks of March 1 9 0 8 , Mahler was not "under contract." He had merely accepted to conduct some concerts with Damrosch's orchestra at the beginning of the next season. On 22 or 23 March, he asked Damrosch for a 10 days' respite before signing his contract with the Symphony, but did not reveal the cause of this delay, and for a very obvious reason: M r s . Sheldon had sworn him to secrecy as long as nothing was settled. But Damrosch did not even have to wait for 10 days. A week later, on 1 April, he received a letter from the Ladies' Committee's lawyer asking him whether Mahler could accept their offer to conduct three "tryout" concerts with the Philharmonic in the autumn. Damrosch quite naturally refused, and an agreement was reached by which Mahler would conduct three concerts with the Symphony Orchestra in the A u t u m n of 1 9 0 8 , and two Philharmonic concerts in the spring of 1909. Although Krehbiel later accused Mahler of having "neglected his legal and moral

unethical. Be that as it may, subsequent events were to show that Damrosch never forgave him for having delayed the negotiations without informing him of Mrs. Sheldon's offer. Damrosch proceeded to do everything in his power to make sure that Mahler's three concerts with the Symphony in the autumn failed miserably. Reginald de Koven wrote in the New York World, the day after the performance of the Second Symphony: "Herr Mahler, as 1 hear, was reported to have said that his conducting yesterday was something of a farce, as the members of the orchestra neither came nor stayed at rehearsals, as he wished them to." No effort of any kind was made to advertise the three concerts, Damrosch's intention obviously being to prove that Mahler's presence on the podium would not attract the public. Thus the hall was half empty for the first concert. M a x Smith recalled how liberal the Damrosch brothers had always been with free tickets for their concerts whenever the sales had not been adequate. "Why shouldn't a Sunday concert with Mahler draw at least as big a crowd as a Sunday concert with Damrosch?" he asked. "Are we to believe that a m a n of Damrosch's social friendships can fill Carnegie Hall more readily by waving a baton than a man of Mahler's musical greatness? . . . Is it established that his [Damrosch's] pretty graces as conductor exert a greater attraction on a N e w York public than Mahler's genius?" Worse still, according to M a x Smith, the orchestra's "ragged playing" made it "obvious that the men playing for him had not learned their task properly in the time allotted for rehearsing." They had been only partially able to "respond to demands so highly wrought and so quietly suggested. . . . To play smoothly, precisely and euphoniously under the guidance of a man who beats time like a metronome is far different than answering with equal exactness and beauty the demands of a conductor whose interpretations are impregnated with significant detail." Henry Krehbiel was the only critic to claim that the orchestra performed well in 29

obligations," Mahler's correspondence with Damrosch does not provide the slightest 28 evidence that his behavior had at any time or in any way been dishonest or in any way

spite of Mahler's conducting. Walter Damrosch's father, Leopold, had founded the N e w York Symphony in 1878 and conducted it until his death in 1 8 8 5 . Walter had succeeded his father at the age of 23 and had very soon revealed a remarkable talent as an organizer, a lecturer, and a money-raiser, if not as a conductor. He had married the daughter of James Blaine, one of America's most f a m o u s i f most controversialpoliticians. Blaine was an intimate friend of Andrew Carnegie, and D a m r o s c h had persuaded the millionaire-philanthropist to build the concert hall that bore his name. For the N e w York Symphony's 28 concerts per year, it was Damrosch's policy to engage famous soloists and to introduce a great number of new works. However, although the orchestra had been "reorganized" in 1 9 0 7 and now gave 34 concerts a season in N e w York, its level of performance was low because the musicians were engaged only for a seven-month season and a long tour; substitutes often played for them at rehearsals and concerts; these were insufficiently rehearsed; and, most important of all, D a m r o s c h himself was neither a very demanding nor a very talented conductor. His habit of making introductory speeches on the p o d i u m had exasperated s o m e of the orchestra's most generous patrons, such as J. P. M o r g a n . Arthur J u d s o n , the concert magnate and head of C o l u m b i a Concerts, once told me in the 1950s that that was the reason why the famous banker and collector was so easily persuaded to switch allegiance from the S y m p h o n y to the Philharmonic when M r s . Sheldon asked him for his support. T h e Philharmonic and the S y m p h o n y were longtime rivals and competitors. Both

Theodore Spiering, Mahler's concertmaster, who conducted the balance of Mahler's 30 Philharmonic concerts in 1911 after the ailing conductor returned to Vienna.

orchestras played in the same hall and often recruited the same extra musicians. It was obvious from the start that Walter Damrosch had everything to lose from the reorganization of the Philharmonic, from the increase in the number of concerts it would give per year, and from the presence on the p o d i u m of a conductor of Mahler's stature. To prove that Mahler was no asset, Damrosch divulged the financial results of his three concerts given in the autumn with the Symphony in an interview that was published early in 1909 in Musical America: they had cost $ 10,000 and brought in only $ 4 , 3 0 0 . Three years later, in his obituary, Krehbiel followed suit: Mr. Mahler was an expensive and unprofitable proposition, and a case of large outlay and small income. Without perhaps realizing it, Mahler was entering a true battlefield, the survival of the two societies being at stake. T h e first two Philharmonic concerts, which took place in March/April 1909, augured well for the future. T h e performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was well received, but it convinced Mahler that changes in personnel were indispensable in the ranks of the orchestra. Nearly 5 0 % of the musicians were replaced before Mahler's first season began. T h e plans for the reorganization of the Orchestra were ambitious, too ambitious perhaps. T h e number of Philharmonic concerts per season was to be raised from 18 to 4 6 , the orchestra was to travel regularly to Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and to tour N e w England. T h e eight Thursday evening subscription concerts were to be repeated on Friday afternoons. Three cycles (six historical concerts, five Beethoven concerts, five Sunday popular concerts) brought the total number of N e w York concerts to 3 5 . N o w the Philharmonic's avowed aim was to provide the city with an orchestra comparable in quality to the Boston Symphony, and an orchestral institution as respected as the Met. T h i s was the main reason for Mahler's 32 engagement as musical director. Theodore Spiering, the concert-master w h o m Mahler had

engaged on Fritz Krieler's recommendation, recalled the tremendous enthusiasm with which he started to rehearse in the autumn of 1909. T h e first concert, on 4 November, was very well received by the audience, and the reviews were mostly favorable. Even Mahler's enemies agreed that his orchestra was becoming "a joyful, responsive and flexible instrument" (New York Sun). However, on 1 6 / 1 7 December 1 9 0 9 , Mahler m a d e a hazardous decision in including his own First S y m p h o n y in the program of the regular subscription concerts. New York was no more prepared than Europe had been for an "ironic" Funeral March, for the innocence of the first movement and the hurricanes in the Finale, and the majority of reviews were scathing. Furthermore, this performance was to transform the already hostile Krehbiel into a mortal enemy. He was in charge of the program notes for the Philharmonic concerts, and he asked Mahler for permission to reprint a letter of his which Ernst O t t o Nodnagel, Mahler's self-appointed analyst, had quoted s o m e years earlier in G e r m a n y in a text concerning the First Symphony. Mahler, whose hostility to "program music" had increased with the years and was by now firmly established, denied having ever written such a letter and would not allow any program notes at all to be published. Krehbiel's answer came in the form of two articles. O n e of them filled a whole page of the New York World. It was a bitter assault on Mahler as a "program musician" ashamed of being so. From then on until Mahler's last concert in N e w York, Krehbiel's attacks never ceased. Mahler's daily life during the first and second Philharmonic season can be described as far more relaxed and sociable than it ever had been in Europe. He and Alma went to dinner parties, attended large gatherings in several millionaires' mansions, and m a d e a great number of new friends and acquaintances. Mahler was undoubtedly working much harder than he 33

had during the two previous seasons, yet he wrote optimistic letters to his family and friends informing them that he had never felt better and that he enjoyed his work. T h e Mahler whom an anonymous journalist interviewed at the end of M a r c h 1 9 1 0 , at the end of a long and trying season of concerts, was neither exhausted nor depressed:

The energy that inspires Mr. Mahler was manifest last week, when a Tribune representative visited him in his apartment in the Hotel Savoy. Mr. Mahler was alone at the time, and he was forced to answer his doorbell a dozen times during the course of the interview. A father arrived who wished the conductor to hear his son play the cello; packages kept coming; telephone calls galore regarding rehearsals, and from persons who wanted interviewsyet, though he answered them all, he never seemed out of patience . . . "Excuse me but this afternoon I must be my own servant. "

T h e journalist s u m m e d up Mahler's character as that of "a skeptical enthusiast. He sees the transitory nature of all things. He feels that nothing really endures. Yet he admires, he admires enthusiastically all genuine self-expression." On 6 and 7 January 1 9 1 0 , Mahler scored one of the greatest triumphs in his entire career with a concert featuring Busoni as soloist. T h e program, on each of the two evenings,

The last of a six-page letter, circa 1909, from Gustav Mahler to Richard Arnold, then Concertmaster and Vice-President of the Philharmonic, detailing his programming ideas for his first season, which included performances by Busoni and Maud Powell.
35

included

Berlioz's

Symphonie fantastique,

Beethoven's

Fifth

Piano

Concerto

and

the There is only one city in America which I cannot understand, and that is New York. I cannot believe it possible that I have seen correctly the audiences at the three Philharmonic concerts I attended. In Europe, people would have traveled

Meistersinger Prelude. T h e editors of Musical America were so overwhelmed that they reprinted all the reviews in extenso, thus filling no fewer than five large pages of their second January issue. Busoni records in a letter that one of the C o m m i t t e e ladies expressed her disapproval of the performance at a rehearsal, but Mahler does not appear to have taken her criticisms seriously. A more embarrassing accident occurred at the end of January. Mahler had invited as soloist for the S c h u m a n n Piano Concerto a gifted but eccentric G e r m a n pianist of Hungarian origin named Josef Weiss. D u r i n g the dress rehearsal, it seems that Mahler congratulated him with more politeness than conviction at the beginning of the second movement (according to one of the versions of the incident reported in New York America). Weiss took offense, flew into a rage, threw his score to the floor, and left the stage. A cartoon depicting the scene appeared the next day in the press, and one can sense the C o m m i t t e e ladies' disapproval between the lines of the newspaper reports. It is clear that they found such an incident incompatible with the dignity of the institution. The first Philharmonic season ended with an epoch-making performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. T h i s was infinitely superior to the performance of the previous year, and proved conclusively how much the orchestra had improved under Mahler's "iron rule." This was acknowledged by the immense majority of critics, except of course Krehbiel, who chose not to reviewand probably not to attendthe concert at all. Unfortunately, the financial results of the season were disappointing. T h e hall had often been less than half full for many of the concerts. Walter Rothwell, the conductor of the Saint Paul Symphony Orchestra, 36 commented as follows about the N e w York musical public:

miles, yes hundreds of miles, to hear Mahler conduct the Ninth Symphony . . . that he should be here and that his concerts should not be of more importance to people supposed to care for music, shows that you have not the audience in New York that I thought you had because to manifest an indifference when Mahler gives something of himself is not possible to people who really appreciate and understand music for itself.

Ernst Jokl, a Berlin journalist who attended several of Mahler's concerts in the closing weeks of the season, also complained of the audience, "the majority of whom arrived late and left before the end of the performance." Yet Jokl had been struck by the way in which Mahler "identified with the works." " H e was resigned (to such indifference)," but "his temperament and his strength were unaffected, indeed perhaps all the more concentrated and intensified." Clearly, the Philharmonic concerts had not yet become an essential part of N e w York's musical life. T h i s is perhaps hardly surprising after only one season and the steep increase in the number of concerts. It was then rumored in the press that Mahler would perhaps not renew his contract. T h e deficit had practically wiped out the entire a m o u n t of the Guarantee Fund ( $ 9 0 , 0 0 0 ) . However, the Guarantors felt it would take more time for a new public to develop, and persuaded three generous sponsors, Joseph Pulitzer, J. P. M o r g a n , and Andrew 37

Carnegie, to make further large contributions for the following season. A number of important new measures were taken. T h e first, which had been strongly recommended by Mahler, was the hiring of a professional business manager n a m e d L o u d o n Charlton. T h e second was the engagement of a number of new players (18 percent of the personnel was thus renewed). T h e third was another large increase in the number of concerts, which tends to prove that neither the C o m m i t t e e nor Mahler had been disheartened by the results of the preceding season. Both knew they were engaged in a pioneering venture which could not be expected to succeed in so short a time. In a letter to his sister Justi, Mahler m a d e the following c o m m e n t about the first Philharmonic season: "For me, everything went

remarkably well this year and I myself am amazed how well I bore all the exertions. I am definitely more capable of w o r k a n d happier than I have been in the last 10 years." D u r i n g the summer of 1 9 1 0 , Mahler suffered in his personal life one of the most brutal blows that fate had yet inflicted on him. He suddenly discovered that his wife had been unfaithful to him. Far from repenting, she blamed him in large part for her conduct, and confronted him with a catalogue of the innumerable grievances she had borne against him over the years. T h o s e painful s u m m e r months have sometimes been called unproductive by people who forget that during them Mahler c o m p o s e d the entire Tenth S y m p h o n y (what he left uncompleted would have been finished in a matter of days, excluding of course the orchestration). He also learnt 73 new scores by 17 composers, all of which he was to conduct during the following season. After crossing half of Europe to consult Freud about his relationship with Alma, he spent the first half of September in Munich, rehearsing and

38

Alma Mahler, with her daughters Maria and Anna, circa 1907.

conducting the huge forces required for the first performance of the Eighth Symphony. A full schedule for a man who has so often been described as close to death! Although his relationship with A l m a took on an obsessive, pathological intensity, he was very soon just as active professionally as before. During the same summer of 1 9 1 0 , Mahler found out that the Philharmonic's new manager, Loudon Charlton, had persuaded the C o m m i t t e e to increase the number of concerts even further, from 45 to 6 5 . He was understandably angry not to have been consulted or informed, and asked for an increased salary of $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 instead of the $ 2 0 , 0 0 0 earlier planned. After six months' negotiations, the Guarantors eventually granted him an increase of only $ 3 , 0 0 0 . T h e prolonged negotiations certainly did nothing to improve the Committee's relations with Mahler. Another source of tension developed at the end of the year, when Mahler befriended a second violinist by the name of T h . E. Johner. O n e of Mahler's true weaknesses w a s a n d had always beento believe all too easily that people disliked him. In Vienna, his brother-in-law, Arnold Ros, had often briefed him about the intrigues devised by hostile members of the Philharmonic. Johner was soon suspected of being Mahler's spy and was nicknamed by his colleagues "Judas of the Orchestra." In the 1950s, Hermann Reinshagen, a double-bass player under Mahler, informed me of the official reason for his eviction: Johner had pleaded illness and had been allowed to stay home while the rest of the orchestra went on tour to Pittsburgh, Buffalo, etc. When the manager heard that he had nevertheless participated in a concert in N e w York, he immediately dismissed him. O n e task which Mahler had perhaps assigned to him could well have been that of identifying the player or players who took care to inform Krehbiel before each 4o concert of every alteration he introduced in classical scores.

Alma Mahler states that "Mahler had become rude with the Orchestra, irritable and intolerant. He believed J o n a s [Johner] to be his only true friend, and was sure that all the rest of the Orchestra hated him." However, A l m a seldom attended rehearsals, and there are serious reasons to doubt her statement. In the 1960s, William Malloch interviewed the surviving members of Mahler's Philharmonic, and none of these invaluable first-hand interviews substantiates her claims. At the beginning of Mahler's second Philharmonic season, a serious effort was m a d e to appeal to a new and larger public. T h e price of seats and especially that of subscriptions was lowered, the number of out-of-town concerts increased, and a new attempt m a d e to render the programs more appealing. T h u s , the number of works by Tchaikovsky, N e w York's most popular composer, was more than doubled. Mahler's first performances of the "Pathtique" had been poorly reviewed. T h e next ones, however, proved that he had done his best to identify with N e w York's most popular modern symphony as he had before with the same composer's operas. Although the program of the first concert, Mahler's arrangement from Bach Suites, Schubert's C major S y m p h o n y and Strauss's Zarathustra, was anything but popular, it was loudly applauded by a full house, and well reviewed by a large majority of critics (except of course Krehbiel). In January 1 9 1 1 , Mahler had not quite m a d e up his mind to return to N e w York for another Philharmonic season. T h e salary he d e m a n d e d ( $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 ) had been found too high by the Guarantors, who were negotiating with other conductors. Shortly after the

Orchestra's big tour, a genuine dispute developed concerning Mahler's programs. It seems that he had once let himself be persuadedimprudently no d o u b t t o relinquish part of the responsibility for program making and to declare himself willing to conduct any works 41

the Guarantors found necessary to attract the public. T h e press even claimed that his programs had already been altered more than once by the C o m m i t t e e . His readiness to make concessions was proved at the end of the year, when he conducted twice in N e w York and once in Brooklyn an all-Tchaikovsky program m a d e up of unfamiliar works (including Symphony N o . 2 and Suite N o . 1). But further concessions were no doubt being required from him. At the end of January, measures were taken by the Guarantors to reduce Mahler's powers, and two sub-committees were formed, one in charge of finance, another of programs. T h e unpleasant scene described by Alma, when a lawyer who had been taking notes of what Mahler said appeared from behind a curtain, surely occurred at a session of the program committee and in the absence of M r s . Untermyer, who had from the start been Mahler's friend and loyal supporter a m o n g the Guarantors. Although he must have been exasperated and hurt by this painful scene, Mahler was certainly aware that his power in N e w York was still considerable. T h e fact that he was already doing the job, his international reputation, his past accomplishments, and the progress achieved with the orchestra were all strong arguments in his favor. Furthermore, no first-rate conductor was apparently willing or able at this time to replace him. In the first dissertation about "Mahler in N e w York," written in 1973, Marvin von Deck pertinently remarks that the meeting in Mrs. Sheldon's house suffices to prove that the Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e had decided to re-engage him as music

A cartoon that ran in the New York American on January 31, 1910, about the eccentric pianist Joseph Weiss, who attacked Mahler with a score of Schumann's Piano Concerto during a rehearsal. 43

director; otherwise they would only have needed not to renew his contract. Unfortunately, we have no evidence from a key witness of Mahler's dealings with the Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e , Mrs. Sheldon herself. Since my mother in her youth had known both Mrs. Sheldon and her daughters, I m a d e several attempts during the 1950s to find out whether she had left any papers or statements, but none of my efforts ever bore fruit. T h e letters Mahler wrote to Europe at the end of January prove that he had practically made up his mind to return to N e w York for at least another year: "As the dice here seem to have fallen," he writes to the young Swiss writer William Ritter, "I may well become my own successor next season. With their love and willingness, the people here are making it virtually impossible for me to leave them in the lurch. And thus I am half decided to return here next winter. To the Munch impresario Emil G u t m a n n , who had recently organized the premiere of the Eighth Symphony and had further proposals to make, his answer was: "As concerns next year, it is, as I had foreseen, difficult to leave here. T h e people are making every effort, and will probably capture me again. I think that eventually i shall have to abscond in secret, otherwise I shall never get away from here." O n e of Mahler's close friends, Maurice Baumfeld, the critic of New York's main German newspaper, the Staatszeitung, recalled that "when he began to feel that the public was starting to warm up to his truly sacred seriousness, he had decided to come back and complete his task here." In fact, Baumfeld adds, he was starting to feel at home in New York. He sometimes sat for hours at the window of his apartment watching the busy toand-fro of the city. He "had a real passion" for its sunny climate and often said, "Wherever I am, I feel homesick for this blue sky, for this sun and this throbbing activity." T h e N e w Year had begun at the Philharmonic with two all-Wagner programs, one of 44 which was also given in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Washington. In the Evening Sun, Henry

T. Finck describes how "Mahler was recalled again and again with the same expressions of frenzied enthusiasm." In the Evening World, Sylvester Rawling called the first of these evenings "the most inspired and inspiring concert of the season." Shortly thereafter, Mahler included his own Fourth S y m p h o n y in a program, and it was misunderstood in N e w York just as it had been in Germany and Austria. O n c e again, according to Reginald de Koven, Mahler had shown "his predilection for folksongs and somewhat archaic formulas." Then, "he suddenly seems to say to himself: ' H a ! I have forgot, I must be modern,' and proceeds forthwith to shake out the whole bag of tricks of the modern musical juggler." Unbeknown to them, the N e w York critics were only repeating the tired old cliches of their German counterparts. H o w surprised they would have been if told that, 50 years later, N e w York would be ahead of the rest of the world in the rediscovery of Mahler's symphonies! Despite the failure of the Fourth Symphony, a comprehensive examination of the season's reviews reveals that they were much more favorable than those of the preceding season. Even critics such as William Henderson (Sun) and Arthur Farwell (Musical America), whose previous articles had been mostly negative, now acknowledged the progress accomplished by the Orchestra and the general high level of the performances. Looking back on the whole season, Henderson found that more than three-quarters of his own reviews had been favorable. Needless to say, the critics who had been well disposed towards Mahler from the start, for instance Richard Aldrich (Times), Henry T. Finck (Evening Post), and Max Smith (Press), maintained their support. Needless to say also, Krehbiel's hostility reached new heights. He did not miss a single occasion to disparage Mahler, whether or not he was specifically writing about the Philharmonic. By 21 February, Mahler had conducted 46 concerts, nearly three-quarters of those scheduled (63). 45

On 4 February, after rumors had leaked out in the press of tensions between Mahler and the Guarantors, Mrs. Sheldon was interviewed by Musical America:

Personally 1 feel that Mr. Mahler is the greatest conductor today, either in Europe or in America, and I feel further that we have been most fortunate in keeping him as long as we have. While it is not settled absolutely, I believe that he will remain with us at least another year. Of course, we have not been entirely fortunate in the attitude of the critics towards the orchestra. Certain of the critics are entirely free, that is they have no other interests which prevent them from writing what they think and can criticize a program favorably, or adversely, merely upon the music's merit. On the other hand, there are critics in this city whose interests in other institutions and organizations are so great that they cannot afford to write as they must feel concerning the magnificent work of the orchestra.

Everyone must have known whom she was referring to, for it was public knowledge that both Krehbiel and Henderson held teaching posts in the Institute of Musical Art, the school founded and directed by the Damrosch brothers. Shortly after the onset of Mahler's illness, his re-engagement was officially announced by several newspapers. As we shall see, this announcement was premature, for no decision had as yet been reached. When it appeared, Mahler had already taken to his bed. C o m i n g so

Walter Damrosch, who conducted the Symphony Society from 1 8 8 5 to 1 9 2 8 , the year it merged with the New York Philharmonic.

47

soon after the rumors of his dispute with the Guarantors' Committee, his illness was inevitably interpreted as feigned or "diplomatic." He was reported to be "sulking against the powers of the Philharmonic," while in fact, on 8 March, in an official letter addressed to the Guarantors' Committee, he again, but this time in writing, declared himself willing to conduct 90 to 100 concerts during the following season for a salary of $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 . O n c e more, the Executive C o m m i t t e e found his demands excessive and decided to sign him up only if Felix Weingartner were not available. H a d Mahler recovered, the outcome of this

villains in the eyes of posterity. Yet it must be remembered that, as her memoirs were later to prove, A l m a always spoke of Mahler as a sickly man, whose constant overwork never ceased to undermine an already weak physical constitution. Furthermore, at this time, she had every reason to feel secretly guilty after the cruel blows she had inflicted upon him (during the preceding summer. T h e letters first published in Reginald Isaacs' Gropius biography of 1983 also revealed new and painful truths about her affair with Gropius, the first one being that she had no intention of giving him up. Mahler must have had strong suspicions, to say the least, and some kind of modus vivendi must have been reached whereby she would keep Gropius but would remain his wife and the mother of his children. Be that as it may, Alma's interview with Meltzer contributed a great deal to the legend. It was generally assumed from then on that Mahler's illness was the result of overwork and nervous stress caused by his conflict with the Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e . Yet, a few days before Alma made these dramatic and much publicized statements to Meltzer, Mahler, in what was probably his last interview, had spoken to a Viennese journalist and said:

negotiation could easily be predicted. Since Weingartner was either unable or unwilling to leave Germany, Mahler would have remained the obvious and necessary choice and would no doubt have accepted a small reduction of his salary. T h a t he did not plan to leave New York is clear from the fact that twice, during his last illness, when his condition briefly improved, he immediately arranged to hold an orchestra rehearsal the next day and start discussing the program with which he would take leave of N e w York for the season. In early May, while Mahler was being treated for endocarditis in a French sanatorium near Paris, Alma granted to Charles Henry Meltzer, of the New York American, an interview which was immediately reproduced in many German and American newspapers and magazines, and which has often been quoted since then: You cannot imagine what Mr. Mahler has suffered. In Vienna my husband was all powerful. Even the Emperor did not dictate to him, but in New York, to his amazement, he had 10 ladies ordering him about like a puppet. He hoped,

I have worked really hard for decades and have borne the exertion wonderfully well. I have never worked as little as I did in America. I was not subjected to an excess of either physical or intellectual work there.

It has been hinted that the course of a fatal illness, even when it is caused by an infection, can be hastened by psychological factors. Such an assertion is of course hard to prove scientifically, but if any psychological factor can be claimed to have lowered Mahler's

however, by hard work and success to rid himself of his tormentors. . . . 48 This sounds dramatic enough and casts the ladies of the Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e as

resistance to disease, it is mote likely to have been Alma's infidelity, the thought of having

49

henceforth, so to speak, to share her with her lover, and the idea that only his own death would set her free to marry him. However that m a y be, all medical experts today agree that, 30 years before the miracle drugpenicillinwas discovered, Mahler's illness (Osler's disease) was invariably fatal. T h u s Mahler was killed, not by the hectic pace of American life, nor by overwork at the Philharmonic, nor by sadistic N e w York committee women, but by slow endocarditis, which is not a heart disease in the usual sense of the word, but a serious infectionincurable at that timewhose seat is in the heart. H a d he lived, he would certainly have acknowledged the deep feeling of happiness and fulfillment which the Philharmonic post had brought to him. To a Viennese journalist who came to interview him just before he left America, he spoke of the Johner affair as "insignificant in itself" but admitted having hesitated before signing his new contract because of it. M o s t likely, he would have settled his dispute concerning programs as he had m a n y others in his life before. Deadly enemies such as Walter Damrosch, hostile critics such as Henry Krehbiel, were nothing new in his life. He would have gone on ignoring them, and his only reaction would have been, as before, to work hard and to strive for the steady improvement in his orchestra and in the high quality of its performances. Ten years earlier he had written to his bride-to-be: " T h e important thing is never to let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries and, in both one's life and one's work, to continue steadfastly on one's way without letting oneself be either defeated by failure or diverted by applause." In all likelihood, Mahler would have gone on to conduct one or more further seasons in N e w York. A n d his influence on the musical life

Front page of an announcement for Mahler's first s e a s o n of concerts in Brooklyn.

51

of the city would certainly have been deeper and more lasting, now that the first two pioneering years were behind him. T h e legend of Mahler's "failure" spread abroad, and was even amplified over the years. Krehbiel had written, in his notorious obituary:

acknowledge, that the Philharmonic audience would be as quick to resent an outrage on the musical classics as a corruption of the Bible or Shakespeare. He did not know that he was doing it, or if he did he was willing wantonly to insult their intelligence and taste. . . ." Only Krehbiel, in fact, had considered Mahler's alterations in repertory scores an "outrage." Most of the other critics had hardly mentioned them.

He was looked upon as a great artist, and possibly he was one, but he failed to convince the people of New York of the fact, and therefore his American career was not a success. His influence was not helpful, but prejudicial to good taste. . . . It was not long before the local musical authorities, those of the operatic and concert field, found that Mr. Mahler was an expensive and unprofitable proposition. . . .

Such were the tone and contents of Krehbiel's obituary that a large number of professionals and music-lovers were deeply shocked. In the New York Press, M a x Smith wrote:

Gustav Mahler is dead; but even death has not silenced the tongue of one of his most relentless persecutors in New York. We have been informed that the objectionable comments, which have been characterized as one of the most "savage

In another article published a week later, the same Krehbiel added: " T h e artistic failure of the Philharmonic scheme was so complete as its disappointment from a popular point of view. T h o u s a n d s of dollars were lost to show how little d e m a n d for the enterprise of the Society existed in this city. . . ." T h e friend of the Damrosches and the faithful supporter of the N e w York Symphony is of course speaking. Yet the Philharmonic not only endured, it flourished and proved without a shadow of a doubt that a strong demand for such an enterprise indeed existed in N e w York. In the autumn following Mahler's death, the society was to receive half a million dollars' legacy from Joseph Pulitzer. Far from being defeated by the Symphony, as Krehbiel hints, it was the Philharmonic which later absorbed the rival Society and became N e w York's leading orchestra. In his obituary, Krehbiel m a d e the following remarks about the retouches Mahler 52 introduced in classical scores: " H e never knew, or if he knew he was never willing to

attacks on a dead man's memory" ever printed in this city, and have outraged the feelings of every reader possessed of a grain of common decency, were inspired by "a sense of duty," by an irresistible desire to tell the "truth." Coming from a man, however, most of whose utterances concerning Mahler from the day that [this] conductor was engaged by the Philharmonic Society, animosity, breathed the venom of in fact no

the explanation is far from convincing. No explanation,

manner of reasoning will serve as an excuse in the minds of Americans for so unwarranted an assault, immediately after his death, on the memory of a

musician who, whatever his faults as an artist, was a master of his craft; whatever his sins as a man, he suffered cruelly and died in agony.

Yet for many years to come, Krehbiel's resentful remarks, as well as Alma's dramatic

53

statements, were still coloring all the descriptions of Mahler's last two years in America. If Mahler had survived, I have no doubt that he would have brought further changes to the musical life in N e w York, if only by improving the general level of orchestral playing, and that of the Philharmonic in particular. T h a t level deteriorated quickly after his death, when the conscientious but uninspiring J o s e f Stransky was chosen to replace him. Stransky has been called a "society conductor," for he was better able to please the ladies of the C o m m i t t e e and knew how to cater to the tastes of the public. Like all reformers, Mahler, it is true, had sometimes been too demanding and too loath to compromise, but this had surely been his main asset as renovator of the Philharmonic. Yet fate, not he himself, nor the critics, nor the Philharmonic's Guarantors, was responsible for the sudden interruption of his activity as musical director. His real mistake was to die too soon.

1994 Henry-Louis de La Grange

An English translation of Henry-Louis de La Grange's monumental biography of Gustav Mahler is being issued in four volumes by Oxford University Press. The above essay is an abbreviated

version of "Mahler and the New York Philharmonic: The Truth Behind the Legend," first published (with full bibliographical citations) in On Mahler and Britten: Essays in H o n o u r of D o n a l d Mitchell on His 70th Birthday, edited by Philip Reed (The Boydell Press and The Britten-Pears Library, 1995).

A caricature of Josef Stransky, who succeeded Mahler as Conductor of the Philharmonic 54 from 1 9 1 1 to 1 9 2 3 .

New York's Musical Culture:

The Transformation of an Orchestra

by HOWARD SHANET
The following excerpts, from Howard Shanet's Philharmonic: A History of N e w York's Orchestra (a revised version of which is to be issued by Yale University Press), describe the lively and competitive classical-music environment in New York City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They outline the rapid evolution of the Orchestraafter the sudden death of the charismatic Anton Seidl in 1898from a musicians' cooperative to a modern corporate institution that employed Gustav Mahler as its Music Director.

Anton Seidl ( 1 8 5 0 - 1 8 9 8 ) , formerly Richard Wagner's assistant, was Conductor of the New

56

York Philharmonic from 1 8 9 1 until his death.

A
Wagner

nton Seidl, in background a n d personality, h a d the makings of a glamorous interpreter-conductor. Hungarian by birthin itself an exotic passport to the

T h e o d o r e T h o m a s . A l t h o u g h Seidl was the c h a m p i o n o f the "new" m u s i c o f Wagner a n d Liszt, it should be observed that both of them had been dead for several years by the time Seidl c a m e to the Philharmonic in 1 8 9 1 . T h e y were, in fact, on the way to b e c o m i n g an established part of the m o d e r n sector of the orchestral repertory, a n d that repertory in general was tending to a s s u m e more a n d more the aspect of an accepted b o d y of past music with only s o m e leavening from the new. Seidl's orchestra library shows him to have had a balanced collection of great breadth, covering the principal orchestral works from the time of H a y d n to his own day. At the end of Seidl's first year, in 1 8 9 2 , the

American artistic w o r l d h e was even rumored to be the illegitimate son of Franz Liszt. After leaving the Leipzig Conservatory in 1 8 7 2 , Seidl had actual-

ly lived in the household of Richard Wagner for a number of years as one of the young musicians who helped to prepare the score and parts of The Ring of the Nibelung. It was himself who had recommended him, after that, as conductor for Angelo

N e u m a n n ' s Wagner Theater. Seidl c a m e to N e w York in 1885 as conductor for the new G e r m a n Opera, which had been "orphaned" by the death of Leopold D a m r o s c h , but he also began to give concert programs almost from the start with sufficient success to arouse the jealousy of T h e o d o r e T h o m a s . By the time Seidl replaced T h o m a s as Philharmonic conductor in 1 8 9 1 , he had won an enthusiastic following in the concert hall as well as the opera house. Seidl, the disciple of Wagner, was one of the new race of conductors who played on the orchestra as a virtuoso pianist played on his instrument. Carl Bergmann and Thomas had c o m e up through the ranks of the orchestra as cellist and violinist, but Seidl, a pianist like many of the new conductors, c a m e to the Philharmonic from outside, with none of the inhibitions of an orchestra man's tradition with respect to the standard repertory. Indeed, it was said that he was conducting certain classic compositions for the first time in his life when he did them with the N e w York Philharmonic. O n e can guess that, with this b a c k g r o u n d a n d t e m p e r a m e n t , Seidl performed a great deal of the new music of his day; b u t the total a m o u n t , interestingly e n o u g h , was rather less than is generally believed. By actual count, his repertory even represents a slight 58 falling-off in the performance of living c o m p o s e r s , as c o m p a r e d with the repertory of

Philharmonic's official historian could safely affirm the view of the Society with regard to repertory: "I should say that it has conceived its duty primarily to be the conservation of musical c o m p o s i t i o n s which the j u d g m e n t a n d taste of the cultured w o u l d have admitted to the first rank. O n l y secondarily has it m a d e p r o p a g a n d a for new a n d progressive composers who have widened the boundaries of the art." A special case a m o n g c o m p o s e r s then living was that of Dvok, who was resident in N e w York at the time; the excitement of his presence, a d d e d to his evident genius, m a d e for a very high n u m b e r of performances of his c o m p o s i t i o n s by the Philharmonic, of which he was n a m e d an Honorary M e m b e r in 1 8 9 4 . Already under T h o m a s the P h i l h a r m o n i c had begun to a d o p t the m e t h o d s a n d m a n ners of a m o d e r n orchestra " o f the highest class," a n d now the process accelerated. Internationally famous soloists c a m e to be expected regularly for every season, a n d big fees were paid to get them. Regular p r o g r a m notes, or "descriptive p r o g r a m m e s , " as they were called, were now c o m m i s s i o n e d by the Society; A. M e e s wrote them from 1 8 8 7 through 1 8 9 6 at $ 1 5 a concert, after which the distinguished critic H e n r y E d w a r d 59

Krehbiel took on the job at a fee m o r e in keeping with his position in the musical c o m m u n i t y $ 2 5 a concert. Although the Philharmonic during Seidl's tenure still did not own a permanent home of its own, it rented the finest concert hall in the city for its performancesthe new Music Hall, at Seventh Avenue and 57th Street, built by Andrew Carnegie in 1891 and later known by his name. T h e Metropolitan O p e r a H o u s e , where the Philharmonic had played since 1886, had questionable acoustics for orchestral music, but it had been the most fashionable hall in town, and it had offered the practical advantages of a very large seating capacity and of storage space for the Orchestra's library and equipment. T h a t was why T h e o d o r e T h o m a s had put up with it, though he considered the hall and its stage too large for the best artistic results. T h e Metropolitan's attractions, social and practical, were strong enough so that the Philharmonic had stayed on there even after Carnegie's Music Hall, with its superior acoustics and seating arrangements, had opened. On March 2 8 , 1 8 9 8 , at the height of this period of the Philharmonic's social, financial, and artistic success, N e w Yorkers were horrified to learn that Anton Seidl had suddenly died at the age of 4 7 . Seidl's funeral, one of the m o s t remarkable that the city has ever known, tells much about the place that he had m a d e for himself in the life of New York. T h e obsequies were held in the Metropolitan O p e r a H o u s e . T h e orchestra pit was floored over, and the coffin placed upon it. Tickets were prepared for the occasion, and nearly 1 2 , 0 0 0 per sons applied for them, although only 4 , 0 0 0 could be squeezed into the theatet. With the death of Seidl it became painfully clear how much the Philharmonic had been

60

Seidl studies a score in his New York brownstone on East 62nd Street.

dependent for its success on its glamorous interpreter-conductor. It was almost impossible for any other conductor to fill the place of the idolized leader. After an unsuccessful attempt to engage the Belgian violin virtuoso and conductor Eugne Ysae, the Philharmonic took Emil Paur, who had been conducting the Boston S y m p h o n y Orchestra. Paur was a more than competent conductor, but he could not arouse and inflame the public as his predecessor had done. Under Seidl the ticket receipts had climbed to unprecedented heights in the midst of a severe financial depression; under Paur, in comparatively g o o d times, they began to fall again. Meanwhile, in Paur's fourth and last year, E. Francis H y d e had found it necessary to resign as President of the Philharmonic Society, but had paved the way for Andrew Carnegie to succeed him. Carnegie was a man who made his influence felt beyond the exact measure of his financial contribution. He was fond of Walter D a m r o s c h , son of Leopold D a m r o s c h , and the knowledge a m o n g the Philharmonic members of Walter's g o o d relations with Carnegie contributed to his election as conductor of the Philharmonic for 1 9 0 2 - 3 . Financially, Walter's season was almost as bad as his father's had been in 1 8 7 6 - 7 7 . He seemed unable to attract the public. Subscriptions zoomed downward even further than they had under Paur, and the single-ticket sales went with them. From this low point the Philharmonic m a d e one of the most remarkable recoveries in its history. And Walter D a m r o s c h , strange as it may seem, was directly responsible for that recovery, although the path that it eventually took was quite the opposite of the one that he had planned for it. D a m r o s c h may not have had the power to excite the audience, but he was imaginative and resourceful. He approached the President, Andrew Carnegie, and achieved the following, 62 result (I quote from the Minutes of the meeting): "Mr. Carnegie expressed his willingness

to head a fund with five thousand dollars, this fund to be subscribed to by others to raise it to ten thousand dollars or more and this fund to be renewed each year for the c o m i n g four years. T h e Fund to be called T h e N e w York Philharmonic Society Orchestra Fund, and this Fund to be used for the artistic and material improvement of the Society." Carnegie imposed the condition that the Philharmonic members pledge themselves to contribute to the Fund five percent of the dividends that they derived from their regular series of eight public rehearsals and concerts. Less than three weeks later, on January 5, 1 9 0 3 , D a m r o s c h had a meeting with "several of [his] friends and s o m e old subscribers and friends of the Philharmonic," a meeting at which a father different plan was outlined. A much larger fundthe s u m mentioned by Damrosch in My Musical Life is $ 5 0 , 0 0 0 a year for the four yearswas proposed as the beginning of an endowment for a "permanent orchestra" of which the Philharmonic Society was to be only the nucleus. This Permanent Orchestra Fund was to be administered by a board that would adequately represent the financial backers and would not be under the control of the Philharmonic Society. The Society voted unanimously to send a letter to Mr. Harry Harkness Flagler, who was now serving as representative of the S u b - C o m m i t t e e of the Permanent Orchestra Fund, in the form of the following resolution:

The Philharmonic Society of New York . . . is constrained not to concur in the Amendments to its Constitution proposed by the Committee, on the general

grounds that these Amendments so change the nature of the Society as to seriously interfere with the control of its affairs by its members which has always been 63

its vital principle, and that the future prosperity of the Society would be thereby imperiled.

As Richard Arnold, concertmaster and Vice President of the Philharmonic, analyzed the situation, in order to "compete with rival organizations, and to overcome the growing o p position of a portion of the Press, the Philharmonic Society [needed] a European celebrity for a conductor and one of the first rank at that." This meant that they needed funds and friends. T h e y found both through their beloved ex-President and Honorary Associate Member, E. Francis Hyde. With his aid, working swiftly and quietly, they put together a Conductor's Fund, subscribed by Andrew Carnegie, J o h n D. Rockefeller, J a m e s Loeb, Elkan N a u m b u r g , Grant Schley, H y d e , and his brother, Clarence M. Hyde. T h e n in a sensational move they engaged not one but seven celebrated conductors from as many different parts of the w o r l d E d o u a r d C o l o n n e of Paris, Gustav Kogel of Frankfurt, Henry W o o d of L o n d o n , Victor Herbert of Pittsburgh, Felix Weingartner of Munich, Vassily Safonoff of Moscow, and Dr. Richard Strauss of Berlin. Exploiting the presence of Weingartner in N e w York, they gave an extra concert under his direction in the middle of the season. T h e whole plan worked so well that it was repeated with slight variations in the next two seasons. In 1 9 0 5 - 6 , Safonoff and Victor Herbert were back again, and to them were added Willem Mengelberg of Amsterdam, M a x Fiedler of H a m b u r g ,

Announcement for the second concert of the Philharmonic's 1 9 0 3 - 4 s e a s o n , which featured an international roster of conductors: Henry Wood, Victor Herbert, Felix Weingartner, 64 Wassily Safonoff, and Richard S t r a u s s .

Ernst Kunwald of Frankfurt, and Fritz Steinbach of C o l o g n e . By now the Philharmonic's system of guest conductors was doing nicely, and Safonoff in particular had become such a favorite that he was asked to conduct two extra performances beyond the regular series of eight evening concerts and eight afternoon concerts (called that now, instead of public rehearsals). T h e ticket sales rose gratifyingly to almost $ 3 9 , 0 0 0 in 1 9 0 3 - 4 , and then to approximately $ 5 0 , 0 0 0 in each of the next two seasons, finally matching the record that had been set in Seidl's last year. T h e guest-conductors c o u p had captured the public's interest and had put the Philharmonic back on its feet again. N o w it seemed that the p o d i u m could once m o r e be entrusted to a single conductor for an entire season, and for 1 9 0 6 - 7 it was turned over to the guest conductor who had enjoyed the most brilliant success, Safonoff. Vassily Ilyich Safonoff had a many-sided talent. Director of the M o s c o w Conservatory and conductor of the S y m p h o n y Concerts of the Imperial Russian M u s i c Society, he was also a fine pianist. In Safonoff's first year the dollars rolled into the Philharmonic box office. But in the third year the receipts were under $ 4 0 , 0 0 0 and nervousness began to set in. T h e glamour and the excitement of the intetpreter-conductorsfrom Seidl, through the years of guest conductors, to Safonoffhad temporarily outweighed and concealed certain inherent weaknesses of the Philharmonic's structure. A decade after Seidl's death it became apparent that serious problems that had been facing the Philharmonic even in his time had not yet been solved. T h e Philharmonic's m o s t c o n s p i c u o u s p r o b l e m in its effort to "go b i g - t i m e " was the m o u n t i n g c o m p e t i t i o n from others with the s a m e goal in m i n d a c o m p e t i t i o n whose 66 roots went back at least to the days of the T h o m a s Orchestra. W h e n T h e o d o r e T h o m a s

was p e r s u a d e d to b e c o m e c o n d u c t o r of the Philharmonic in 1 8 7 7 , it was i m a g i n e d that the p r o b l e m w o u l d be solved, for it was the T h o m a s Orchestra that had been the Society's m o s t d a n g e r o u s rival. But they b o t h reckoned without L e o p o l d D a m r o s c h . After his one disastrous season with the Philharmonic in 1 8 7 6 - 7 7 , when it was clear that T h o m a s had w o n that field from h i m , D a m r o s c h energetically put together an ad hoc orchestra of his own with which he gave several series of afternoon and evening con certs in 1 8 7 7 - 7 8 e v e n m a n a g i n g to steal the first A m e r i c a n performance of Brahms's First S y m p h o n y from the Philharmonic by performing it a week before T h o m a s h a d scheduled it. By 1 8 8 3 - 8 4 the S y m p h o n y Society had b e c o m e so ambitious an enterprise that it was considering the idea of building its own Hall of M u s i c for its concerts. In 1 8 8 5 L e o p o l d Damrosch died and his son Walter, only 23 years old, took over the direction of the Symphony Society and the Oratorio Society. Walter's social gifts were even greater than his father's when it c a m e to enlisting the aid of the wealthy and the socially prominent for artistic ventures. In 1 9 0 2 - 3 , like his father, he had had a one-year chance with the Philharmonic, which had turned into the second D a m r o s c h debacle. T h e n , once again in his father's pattern, when it was clear that the Philharmonic could not be his, he built his own orchestral forces. With the aid of Harry Harkness Flagler and other moneyed friends, he reorganized the Symphony Society of N e w York in 1 9 0 3 . In building up his orchestra, D a m r o s c h frequently imported gifted musicians from Europe. In this he had an advantage over the Philharmonic, which, as a cooperative society of local orchestra musicians, was naturally reluctant to bring in its own competition from abroad. 67

Damrosch's musical performances were severely criticized in many circles and were seld o m considered superior to the Philharmonic's, but his program-making was often more adventurous. It was the S y m p h o n y Society, not the Philharmonic, that brought

Tchaikovsky to N e w York in 1891 for the opening season at Carnegie's Music Hall. It was the S y m p h o n y Society, not the Philharmonic, that cultivated the music of Debussy in the first few years of the 20th century as a refreshing change from the omnipresent German repertory. It was the S y m p h o n y Society, after Gustav Mahler had c o m e to N e w York to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera, that presented him as concert conductor in the 1908-09 season, before the Philharmonic could do so. Under both Damrosches, father and son, the S y m p h o n y Society was a continuing challenge to the Philharmonic. T h e S y m p h o n y Society was not the only force that the Philharmonic had to contend with. T h e Philharmonic conductors and players were always competing with themselves, even more than they had done in the 1 8 6 0 s . Since they could not m a k e a living from their six or eight pairs of annual concerts, they had always to be on the lookout for other engagementsindeed, had to create other engagements, which inevitably distracted attention from the work of the Philharmonic itself. T h e corroding problem of the Philharmonic was that, even while it was attracting such sensational conductors, such eminent soloists, such wealthy patrons, and such substantial audiences, it was disintegrating internally. In the comparatively healthy years from 1867 to 1 8 7 0 , so many of N e w York's professional musicians wanted to be members of the

Wassily Safonoff, the dazzling Russian piano virtuoso who served as Conductor of the New 68 York Philharmonic between 1 9 0 6 and 1 9 0 9 , was Mahler's immediate predecessor.

Philharmonic that it could always find the 100 players that its largest concerts required in its pool of Actual Members. As the competition of the T h o m a s Orchestra and other concerts began to be felt in the 1870s, both the number of Actual Members enrolled and the number that performed in the concerts went down slightly, and of course the a m o u n t spent to hire outsiders as substitutes had to go up somewhat, but the differential was not yet alarmingly large. From 1883 to 1909, however, the a m o u n t spent for substitutes rose from the neighborhood of $ 2 , 0 0 0 to more than $ 8 , 0 0 0 per season. T h e number of registered Actual M e m b e r s fell from 92 to 57, and the number performing in the Orchestra to 3 7 . O n l y 37 real Philharmonic members playing in an orchestra of 100 men! They hardly had the right to be called an orchestra any more; one could say that they functioned more as a cooperative concert management of 37 men who hired the performers necessary to put on a series of concerts. Ultimately the Philharmonic's problems of cruel competition and internal deterioration had to be reflected in financial troubles. Trying to support a g l a m o r o u s outside with a crumbling inside, the Orchestra was balancing its b u d g e t only on paper. It was becoming more and more difficult for the Philharmonic m e m b e r s to make ends meet. Trying to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps, they m a d e desperate efforts to expand their seasons with additional concerts. T h e r e were perennial hopes for a series at the Brooklyn A c a d e m y of M u s i c and talks with the concert manager L o u d o n Charlton about traveling engagements, but both these projects fell through. Safonoff was offered a contract for 25 to 30 concerts in a s e a s o n o n paperbur when it c a m e to concrete arrangements, only the usual eight pairs materialized. An orchestra in which only 37 players out of a 100 are 70 regular m e m b e r s cannot have a very high morale. It is touching to see these once proud

musicians being treated almost like chanty cases. Even the extra concerts that were arranged by one means or another in these years, gala as s o m e of them seemed to the public eye, had a "make-work" quality about them for the men in the Orchestra; they seldom meant more to the Society than an extra night's pay for the players, and many of those were outside men, picked up for the occasion. For the extra concert at the h o m e of William K. Vanderbilt at 6 6 0 Fifth Avenue in 1 9 0 8 , the stipulated orchestra of 60 Philharmonic m e m b e r s could not be assembled and 22 outsiders had to be hired to make up the number. A mention of "drummers' traps," moreover, in the Philharmonic's records of the Vanderbilt engagement suggests that s o m e of the members m a y have stooped to providing dance music after the concert that evening. For "high-class" musicians, at that time, this had d e m e a n i n g professional and social connotations. " M y men are all ruined," T h e o d o r e T h o m a s had c o m p l a i n e d when he was forced to disband his private orchestra in 1 8 8 8 , "by constant playing at balls and dances, for a living. A nice state of affairs, truly, that after a lifetime of hard work the members of my orchestra must play for dancing in order to live." Two decades later, the state of affairs seemed to have grown even worse. Richard Arnold and his colleagues had waged a stirring but futile campaign to save their beloved cooperative society. T h e y had tried everything that experience and ingenuity suggested they had raised extra funds, they had imported s o m e of the world's greatest soloists and conductors, they had tried to lengthen their seasons, they had modernized their advertising, their press relations, and their office management, but as long as their affairs were managed collectively by a membership that drifted in and out of their handful of concerts each year, while they earned their livings elsewhere, they could not compete with the big71

business methods of the great subsidized orchestras that were being built by the wealthy of America. When two extra concerts were announced for the end of the season of 1908-9, it was not the Philharmonic's regular conductor Vassily Safonoff who led them, but Gustav Mahler. The music world learned then that Safonoff was on his way out and Mahler on his way in. But this was not merely the replacement of one man by another. It was the end of one way of musical life and the beginning of a new one. After 67 years, the cooperative society of professional musicians, democratically deciding who their conductor would be, what music they would play, where they would play it, and how much they would charge for the privilege of attendance at their performances, was to be converted into an orchestra hired and administered by a little group of wealthy citizens that undertook to support it as a public service. "Like many another private enterprise," comments J. H. Mueller on the reorganization of the Philharmonic in 1909, "it was taken over by society as soon as it was affected with the public interest." The Philharmonic in 1909, however, was taken over not by "society," but by "high society." In the season of 1908-9, while Safonoff was still the conductor, Mrs. George R. Sheldon, wife of a prominent banker, and a number of other public-spirited citizens began to organize a group of so-called Guarantors of the Fund for the Permanent Orchestra of the Philharmonic Society of New York. Their object was to raise enough money to rebuild the Carnegie Hall, at the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan, first opened its doors to the public on May 5,1891, with a concert conducted by 72 Walter Damrosch and Tchaikovsky.

Philharmonic into an orchestra of the first rank, paying sufficient salaries to the players and to the conductor to enable them to give their full time to the Orchestra during the concert season. By the early part of 1 9 0 9 large sums were being pledged by s o m e of the old and a great many new supporters of the Philharmonic. T h e y were promises of as much as $ 1 0 , 0 0 0 , $ 1 5 , 0 0 0 , and in a couple of cases even $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 each, and they came from a long list of people whose names meant wealth or position in N e w York's social and business circ l e s J . P. Morgan, T h o m a s Fortune Ryan, Joseph Pulitzer, J o h n D. Rockefeller, E. J. de C o p p e t , Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, Miss Dororhy Whitney, Alex Smith Cochran, Mrs. Samuel Untermyer, Arthur Curtiss J a m e s , and many others. By the end of the month a Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e , with Mrs. Sheldon as Chairman, was meeting regularly, and the wheels of the Philharmonic's new machinery were beginning to turn. From the beginning of 1 9 0 9 the Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e took over the practical administration of the Philharmonic's business affairs. Mrs. Sheldon and her group of Guarantorsespecially the ladies, who had the time and the interest to attend meetings regularly and pursue the business that grew out of themthrew themselves into the work with enthusiasm. Fortunately they also had energy and ability. T h e records of their formal meetings show that they knew how to make the committee system work. For the season of 1 9 0 9 - 1 0 , they supervised the organization and contracting of a full symphony orchestra, engaged one of the world's most distinguished musicians, Gustav Mahler, as conductor, increased the number of concerts from the 18 of the preceding season to 4 6 , arranged the Orchestra's first tour outside the city, and raised more than $ 1 1 8 , 0 0 0 to cover the deficit that these activities incurred. 74 Mahler began to stir things up immediately. He brought in a new concertmaster, the

American violinist T h e o d o r e Spiering. He changed most of the important players in the woodwind and brass sections, favoring in the woodwinds the highly regarded French school. He adjusted the string section to his taste, cutting down the number of basses from 14 to 8 and engaging some fine new cellists from other orchestras. W h e n the reformed Philharmonic gave its first concert, on November 4, 1 9 0 9 , the new order was received with cautious optimism, but by the second and third concerts even Mahler's enemies 'had to agree that he was welding his forces into "a joyfully responsive and flexible instrument," capable of expressing every nuance of his highly personal style. Most Americans assume that Mahler's expansion of the N e w York Philharmonic's activities represented a transplantation of his Vienna practice to a sparsely cultivated N e w York. But in Vienna, where Mahler had conducted the Philharmonic Concerts from 1898 to 1900 he had never had the number and the variety of concerts that he now dared to present in N e w York. As a matter of fact, the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1970s did not offer as many performances as Mahler did in N e w York in 1 9 0 9 . T h e n as now, European cities, with a few exceptions, had long opera seasons, but short symphony seasons; their s y m p h o ny concertsnotwithstanding Mahler's characterization of the symphony as "the basis on which the musical education of a people must stand"have always been a subordinate activity of the same orchestra that plays for the opera. In the expanded N e w York Philharmonic seasons Mahler had a symphonic vehicle that he may have dreamed of, but had never realized, in Europe. An important part of the press was hostile to Mahler, as composer and conductor. In particular, he had a strained and strange relationship with Henry E. Krehbiel, who, as music critic of the Tribune, was one of the city's most influential magistrates of musical 75

taste. Krehbiel, the author of the first history of the Philharmonic, had also been writing the Philharmonic's program notes for many years and considered himself a guardian of the Society's standards. He was strongly opposed to a great deal of what Mahler was doing as conductor and as composer. M o s t of all he was outraged by the liberties that Mahler took with the texts of the great masters of the past; for Krehbiel, an unjustified alteration in a score of Beethoven was lse-majest if not sacrilege. Krehbiel was, of course, a better scholar than Mahler, who, as an interpreter-conductor in an advanced stage, presented performances of Beethoven and Schubert that would shock any well-educated musician of today. W h o can doubt, for example, which side to espouse when reading Krehbiel's cririque of a Mahler performance of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony;

. . . The first evidence of erraticism occurred in the famous cadenza, in the first movement. This Mr. Mahler phlebotomized by giving it to two oboes and beating time

for each notenot in the expressive adagio called for by Beethoven, but in a rigid andante. Thus the rhapsodic utterance contemplated by the composer was turned

into a mere connecting link between two parts of the movement. Into the cadence of the second subject of the third movement, Mr. Mahler injected a bit of

un-Beethovenian color by changing the horn part so that listeners familiar with their Wagner were startled by hearing something very like Hagen's call from

Henry Edward Krehbiel, long-standing music critic for the New-York Daily Tribune, now 76 largely remembered for his criticisms of Mahler.

G t t e r d m m e r u n g from the instruments which in the score simply sustain a harmony voice in octaves. . . .

lutionary "dangerousness" of his compositions, which dared to experiment with materials that had formerly been considered vulgar, and of his performance methods, which appealed to a public that seemed undiscriminating to those who had been patrons of the old

It did not help the relationship between the two men that Mahler had forbidden Krehbiel to write any program notes about his compositions. Mahler was known to disapprove of all such printed aids. "At a concert," Krehbiel reported him as saying, "one should listen, not l o o k u s e the ears, not the eyes." Krehbiel deferred to Mahler's wishes, but he grumbled about it occasionally in his newspaper reviews with a certain petulance, as of a wounded annotator. So embittered did Krehbiel become that, although he was ordinarily correct in his

Philharmonic. At the other extreme, the "masses" seemed to find the various educational series unattractive; this was a disappointment to Mahler, who had talked at the beginning of the season of popular-priced concerts that would give everyone the chance of hearing the best music. S o m e sophisticated N e w Yorkers, moreover, resented Mahler's assumption that they had to be educated. T h e y reminded him that a g o o d part of his repertory had long been familiar to concertgoers in the city, that he tended to repeat pieces like Beethoven's Fifth too often in a single season, and that the Boston S y m p h o n y Orchestra and Damrosch's S y m p h o n y Society had already played in the same season several of the pieces

behavior, he published at the time of Mahler's death in 1 9 1 1 , when others were writing that he was making such a fuss about. respectful or admiring obituaries, a violent attack on the defenseless departed. T h e pianist and conductor Ossip Gabrilowitsch, supported by many other prominent persons, felt obliged to issue a pamphlet in reply. Audiences of today may think wistfully what a thrill it must have been to have heard Mahler conducting the N e w York Philharmonic, but in 1 9 0 9 and 1910 the audiences that took advantage of the opportunity were small ones"probably the smallest that ever attended a Philharmonic concert in 50 years" and "perhaps the smallest in number that ever gathered at a Philharmonic concert" are typical descriptions. It was, after all, the first time that the Philharmonic had tried to give so many concerts in one season, and it took time for a sufficient public to develop. S o m e of the old guard found Mahler too radical both as composer and conductor. It was not that Krehbiel and s o m e of his contemporaries 78 in N e w York failed to appreciate Mahler but, on the contrary, that they grasped the revoThe N e w York public a s s u m e d that Mahler had been engaged for three years, but the Committee was s o u n d i n g out other conductors in case he became too d e m a n d i n g . Franz Kneisel, better known as violinist than conductor, had been approached but would not leave his current work for the one-year contract that was being discussed with him. So manager Charlton was instructed to ask Mahler unofficially what his terms for the next year would be. Mahler said that he would conduct 90 to 100 concerts, far more than the 46 of his first year and the 65 of the season then in progress, for the s u m of $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 . T h e Committee thereupon discontinued negotiations with Kneisel and asked Mahler to put into writing his terms and conditions for the conductorship for the next season. When he did, his proposition was rejected, and the Executive C o m m i t t e e was given power to continue negotiations with Felix Weingartner, to whose agent a cable had previously been 79

sent. If the C o m m i t t e e failed to complete a contract with Weingartner, it was to reopen negotiations with Mahler! Neither side would have been well advised to buy a used car from the other. Mahler's two years represented the first time that the conservative Philharmonic, which formerly had stood like a great rock in the midst of the swirling waters of change, had made an effort to move with the new currents and even to influence their course. For Mahler the experiment had often been a stormy experience, but for the Orchestra there was no question that it had begun to succeed. In the first year of the reorganization, the number of concerts was three times as great as it had ever been before, and in the second year it was four times as great. T h e deficit was very large, it is true, but there were generous citizens not only willing to pay it, but also to give their time and skills to the cause, and in the second year they had narrowed considerably the gap between the Orchestra's expenses and its earned income. T h e expressed policy of the Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e was "to reconcile the commercially possible with the artistically desirable," and the C o m m i t t e e now knew, after its two instructive years with Mahler, that an expanding Philharmonic was compatible with the most exacting artistic standards. In the life story of the Philharmonic, Mahler's brief term marks a m o m e n t of great historic significancethe m o m e n t when the new rubbed abrasively against the old, clearing a path for the future. But Mahler did not, as is generally s u p p o s e d , sweep aside with one brusque gesture the shaky structure of an old Philharmonic to begin his work with an orchestra built entirely of new materials and on new principles. His period of service can better be seen as a period of transition and he as an instrument of change a change that had been gradually prepared, inside and outside the Philharmonic, for

many years before he appeared on the scene. There had been T h e o d o r e T h o m a s ' s plans and d e m a n d s for a "permanent" orchestra and his successful demonstration in C h i c a g o of how it should be accomplished. T h e r e had been Walter Damrosch's proposal of the Permanent Orchestra F u n d , which outlined in 1 9 0 3 , before Mahler even c a m e to America, m u c h the same plan that was finally put into effect in 1 9 0 9 . A n d there had been, for six years before Mahler's term, the C o n d u c t o r s ' F u n d that Richard Arnold and E. Francis H y d e had raised from s o m e of the same p e o p l e w h o would later support the Guarantors' Fund. By the time that Mahler took over the Philharmonic, m u c h of the way had been prepared for him.

Program annotator of the New York Philharmonic and a guest conductor of the Orchestra's Young People's Concerts for the 1959-60 season, Howard Shanet has served as Chairman of the Columbia University Department of Music and Conductor of the University Orchestra.

81

Mahler at the Met

by ROBERT TUGGLE

I
Real

n t h e s u m m e r o f 1 9 0 8 , H e i n r i c h C o n r i e d m a d e o n e last effort a t t h a t i m p o s s i b l e task m a n a g i n g the M e t r o p o l i t a n O p e r a . H i s f o u r s e a s o n s h a d b e e n filled w i t h c o n t r o v e r t

a n d d i s a g r e e m e n t , all c o m p o u n d e d b y h i s o w n l a c k o f o p e r a t i c k n o w l e d g e . H e h a d i n h e r i t e d E n r i c o C a r u s o f r o m his p r e d e c e s s o r b u t o u t o f i g n o r a n c e r e d u c e d his f i r s t

c o n t r a c t b y half. H i s s u c c e s s i n b r e a k i n g t h e B a y r e u t h F e s t i v a l ' s h o l d o n W a g n e r ' s Parsifal h a d b e e n b a l a n c e d b y his p r e s e n t a t i o n o f R i c h a r d S t r a u s s ' s Salome, w h i c h s c a n d a l i z e d t h e Estate Company that owned the Opera House; Salome was banned after one

p e r f o r m a n c e a n d a s c h e d u l e d series c o n d u c t e d by Strauss h i m s e l f c a n c e l e d . A n d luck, that

A caricature of Mahler made by Enrico Caruso, reproduced in

82

The New York Times, January 8, 1909

necessary ingredient in any theatrical endeavor, had avoided him altogether. On tour in San Francisco, his company was caught in the 1906 earthquake, escaping without loss of life but with sets and costumes, music and musical instruments all destroyed. T h e company returned to N e w York with operatic warfare on the horizon. Oscar Hammerstein had built his Manhattan Opera House on West 34th and would in 1906-7 provide serious

TANNHAEUSER A N D TRISTAN MAHLER NEGOTIATED WITH MY KNOWLEDGE AND CONSENT ENGAGE MAHLER FIVE I RECEIVED T H E SANCTION TO WEEKS AGO THROUGH

OBERHOFMEISTER PRINCE M O N T E N U O V E BUT EMPERORS C O N S E N T HAS T O B E G R A N T E D CONRIED.

competition, not just with singers that the Met seemed to know nothing about, but with a chief conductor, Cleofonte C a m p a n i n i , better than anyone on the Met's roster. In May 1907 Conried wrote about conductors to one of his board members, "You speak of my negotiations with Mottl and you suggest Nikisch. I have been in negotiations with Nikisch for the last four years, and I will name the rest of the existing leading conductors to whom I made offers since the day I became manager of the Conried Opera C o m p a n y R i c h t e r , Schuch, Weingartner, Muck, Strauss, Mahler, Mader. . . . P. S. Toscanini to whom I sent a special agent to Milan, replied that no financial consideration would persuade him to accept an engagement in America, and the reports concerning Mugnoni [Mugnone] were such as to give me the conviction that he would be impossible with our orchestra, after two days.' Finally, on June 6, 1907, Conried cabled from Bad Nauheim, a spa near Frankfurt where he had gone for his failing health: N e w s of Mahler's engagement reached the N e w York papers two days later. T h r o u g h the dozen or so newspapers and magazines that avidly covered operatic events, one can trace m o u n t i n g anticipation of Mahler's arrival coupled with the disintegration of Conried's health. By J u n e 2 4 , the Mail headlined: "Conried Still Ill; M a y N o t Return" and followed with the information "Herr Mahler will be Mr. Conried's successor as director of the Metropolitan O p e r a H o u s e . " T h e Telegraph found him better on July 23 and observed, " H e walks with difficulty, and two sticks. But legs are no more an essential to an impresario than intellect to a tenor." In August, s o m e of Conried's bad luck extended in a deaf Swiss peasant who was run down and killed by Conried's automobile as he toured outside Zurich. Accounts of Mahler concentrated on his discipline in Vienna: "MAHLER,

M A R T I N E T IN O P E R A D I R E C T I O N , " said The New York Times in August. By I A M HAPPY T O A N N O U N C E T H E E N G A G E M E N T O F T H E VERY BEST OF ALL MUSICAL DIRECTORS GUSTAV MAHLER FOR T H R E E MONTHS EACH SEASON AT VERY FAVORABLE TERMS LILI December the s a m e paper was specific: "Mahler reformed everything: the orchestra, the company, the scenic decorations: nothing escaped his attention, the least chorus singer no more than the prima donna. He was orchestral conductor, singer, actor, stage manager, scene painter, costumer. He even reformed the ballet. T h e day he began this reform it was thought his fall was near at hand. . . . But they were mistaken about the solidity of the 85

L E H M A N N W E N T PERSONALLY TO MAHLER FOR HAMMERSTEIN 84 OFFERING HIM EXORBITANT TERMS TO DIRECT LOHENGRIN

director's position, as well as about the faithfulness of the ballet's friendsespecially when the director began to put y o u n g and pretty dancers in the front rows." Mahler and his wife A l m a sailed for America on December 1 1 :

When the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria steamed up to Cherbourg. . . there were the Mahlers, hand in hand, waiting at the dock. Alois Burgstaller [one of the Met's

heldentenors] was on board, and he and others cheered Mahler up so that the voyage, though long, wasn't half bad after all, and Mahler played for Burgstaller at the ship's concert off Nantucket on Friday. As the huge steamer neared the Battery he showed keen interest in the Statue of Liberty and the other large, if not necessarily impressive, monuments which greeted him. Gustav Mahler is a tall, dark, unusual looking be-spectacled man, with a worn and haggard face, marked with deep lines that seem to tell of a nervous and artistic temperament. (American, December 22, 1907)

Mahler was met by assistants to Conried and Alfred Hertz, the conductor. It was a Saturday, and after a stop at the Hotel Majestic, Mahler had his first sight of the Metropolitan Opera H o u s e when he sat in Conried's box for the matinee of Tosca with Caruso, E m m a Eames, and Antonio Scotti. On Sunday afternoon, he was at Carnegie Hall for Walter Damrosch and the N e w York Symphony Orchestra in a program that included Berlioz's

A page from the Metropolitan Opera paybooks, showing payments made to Mahler (in 86 Austrian crowns) in 1 9 0 7 and 1 9 0 8 .

Symphonie fantastique and the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto played by Teresa Carreno. " O n M o n d a y Mr. Conried introduced him to the [Metropolitan] orchestra, and after a few words of greeting he took up the baton for a rehearsal of the Tristan score. He had not proceeded far when he characteristically proclaimed: 'All other rehearsals in the theatre must cease.' A chorus rehearsal going on in another room was thereupon stopped" (Musical America, December 28, 1907). Singing her first Isolde anywhere was Olive Fremstad, who had coached the role with Mahler in Vienna the previous summer. Burgstaller had been requested by Mahler but injured his shoulder when thrown from a dog cart in Hoboken and was replaced by Heinrich Knote as Tristan. Mahler's debut on January 1, 1 9 0 8 , was the last great coup of Conried's management. T h e gala audience included two N e w York Isoldes, Lillian Nordica, in blue satin, and J o h a n n a G a d s k i , in black. "When the Metropolitan's new musical director first appeared in the orchestra pit half the persons in the parquet rose to get a g o o d view of him, and there was thunderous applause from every part of the auditorium. He bowed dignifiedly and took his seat in his chair" (Press). There was enthusiastic applause after every act and a magnificent laurel wreath at one of the curtain calls. All the newspapers were s t u c k by Mahler's consideration for the singers, his mastery of orchestral balance. W J. Henderson's review of Tristan und Isolde in the Sun summarizes the response of all N e w York critics. "From the beginning of the vorspiel not a full forte of trumpets and trombones was heard till Isolde raised the cup to her lips and then it came with the crash of a catastrophe. . .. He held to the firmest and most finely spun texture the iridescent web of tone in which Wagner enmeshed his ideas. . . . [B]est of all, the eloquent variety of 88 Wagner's instrumentation was displayed by the simple process of bringing out clearly every

solo phrase, while the harmonic and contrapuntal background was never slighted." However, Henderson and many others pointed out that none of this was new, that Anton Seidl "did all these things in the brave days of old, when there were also mighty singers in the land." Although a master of balance between voices and instruments, Mahler appears to have made one serious miscalculation. T h e Press was only one of several papers that criticized his cuts. Under a headline reading " M A H L E R M U T I L A T E S W A G N E R S C O R E " was this: "Many persons who heard the last act of Tristan und Isolde as performed last night in the Metropolitan Opera H o u s e [with most of Brangne's and Marke's music missing] wondered whether Mahler would have dared to present Wagner's score in such abbreviated form abroad, or whether he had reserved this slashing for the 'musical barbarians' of N e w York. Mahler is a great conductor, a great musician. But if he wishes to retain the respect of American operagoers he will have to treat them as intelligent lovers of music, whose experience of Wagner opera is not of today. Unless the important portions of Tristan und Isolde which Mahler sees fit to omit, are restored speedily, operagoers will feel they are being defrauded of that which they have a right to expect" (Press, January 10, 1 9 0 8 ) . T h e performance had begun at 7:45 p.m. and ended, after three acts and two long intermissions, at 11:30. (The heavily cut performances led by Artur Bodanzky in the 1930s were of the same length.) Although Mahler was sounded out about managing the Metropolitan from the first days of his arrival in N e w York, it is certain that no formal offer was made and that his correspondence with his friend, the designer Alfred Roller, in Vienna, about Roller's coming to New York was somewhat naive. As early as January 15, 1908, a member of Conried's board, Eliot Gregory, reported to another, James H. Hyde, in Paris: "We have been having a most exciting time here at the opera. We made up our minds, as you know, that Conried would have 89

to go, and the question of his successor has remained a burning one. Then Mahler the great German conductor came to us and has been a great success. [Otto] Kahn at once jumped at the idea of putting him at the head of the Opera. This we all sat on as we were anxious to work away from the German atmosphere.... To make a long tale short, we have at last decided (only last evening) after a very hot sitting, at [Robert] Goelet's house. We take as Impresario the man from the Scala Milan Gatti Cattzzai [Giulio Gatti-Casazza] and with him [Arturo] Toscanini as conductor of all French and Italian music. And Mahler for the German operas. [Rawlins] Cottenet sails next week with the contracts for Italy and one of the Italians will return with him to take control here at the end of the season. This is Cottenet's plan with Mahler added to please Kahn, and I am convinced an excellent one, as it gives us the three greatest men in Europe for the three p l a c e s . . . . Toscanini and Mahler stand the undisputed heads of their class and with them we have what no opera house in the world has ever been able to afford before." Mahler turned next to Don Giovanni. His announcement that he would require 15 rehearsals made his soloists gasp. "This number of rehearsals is not unusual to demand from orchestra and chorus, but never before in this country have the principals been required to appear at so many preparatory p e r f o r m a n c e s . . . . [H]e has demanded from leading men and primadonnas the same amount of preparation that he would from the last member of the chorus" (American, January 9, 1908). Later, no one would admit dissatisfaction. "As the Metropolitan orchestra finished its fifteenth and last rehearsal yesterday, playing five and a half hours union labor time, without a murmur, one of the exhausted men said: 'Tired? Yes! But I feel that I am at least a musician once more'" (Evening Sun, January 2 3 , 1908).

90

The old Metropolitan Opera House, at Broadway and 39th Street, 1912.

Mahler not only converted his musicians, he transformed the score. On January 3 1 , 1 9 0 8 , he led a cast that featuted Antonio Scotti in the title role, E m m a Eames, Johanna Gadski, Marcella Sembrich, Alessandro Bonci (lured away from the Manhattan Opera), and Feodor Chaliapin. According to Henderson, "Mozart's Don Giovanni was performed at the Metropolitan O p e r a H o u s e last night in a manner which must have astonished many of the old habitues of the house. For many years this great classic opera has been offered at the Metropolitan as a bargain counter attraction. . . . People have been drawn in crowds to hear six stars at prices usually charged for three. But the mise en scne has always been neglected. T h e acts have been chopped up . . . s o m e scenes were incomprehensible . . . [and] Mozart's dramatic unity sent into outer darkness. A n d no attempt has been m a d e to unify the styles and interpretations of the various singers in an organic whole. It has been every singer for herself and the evil one take Mozart. All this has been changed by the artistic influence of one man, and the result was that last night's performance moved swiftly, steadily, even relentlessly toward its great climaxesone in the finale of the first act, another in the closing scene of the opera. T h e credit must be given to Gustav Mahler . . ." (Sun). Mahler changed almost everything. Don Giovanni had never before been presented in N e w York in only two acts (usually there were four!). According to the Press, "Instead of occupying the usual post close in the first row of the parquet, Mahler sat on a raised platform well forward in the orchestra pit, with only a grand piano between him and the stage. On this instrument, the strings of which were covered with thin paper in order to imitate the sound of a harpsichord, Mahler himself played the recitative accompaniments usually intrusted to an assistant conductor behind the scenes." Krehbiel in T h e Tribune added that "he occasionally added a 92 bit of adornment to the dry chords which ordinarily suffice to buoy up the rapid musical

speech and introduce the key of the songs. He even did this in the dramatic recitative for full orchestra which introduces D o n n a Anna's great air, 'Or sai chi l'onore.'" Press: "Certain scenes were carried out with a perfection of musical detail never before attained in this city, for example, in the ballroom scene, there were three orchestras on the stage, just as the composer intended, and these three small groups of musicians succeeded in playing the music allotted to them with rhythmical precision and clarity. Mahler, with no apparent effort, held the various forces fully in check. . . . Anorher stage band was brought on the boards in the final scene. . . ." T h e chorus was eliminated from the first-act Finale, there were neither guests nor trombones in the final scene, and the epilogue, according to Viennese custom, was omitted. While Mahler may have breathed new life into the score, Don Giovanni was not heard again at the Met until 1 9 2 9 - 3 0 . With only one work at the Metropolitan was Mahler able to give an impression of what he had achieved with music drama in Vienna. For the revival of Fidelio on March 2 0 , 1 9 0 8 , Conried had duplicated the Alfred Roller production. An account in the Evening Sun details the accomplishment:

Heinrich

Conried in five years of Metropolitan

opera

now ending has made his

productions of Parsifal and S a l o m e the sensations of two worlds, old and new. He has added in Meistersinger and Hansel and Gretel twin joys at least to this hemisphere. But it remained for last night's superb revival of Fidelio to mark the red-letter evening of Conried's closing days. Here he did the artistic thing. Here was the miracle. . . . [Our audience] gave to a century-old music-drama the most silent and sensational tribute that we have witnessed on any stage this season. Tremendous, 93

nothing less, was the rapt attention. The new Vienna stage effects began at first rise of curtain, in a jailer's lodge of some Spanish dungeon-keep. Through one deepbarred window grating streamed the slanting sunlight as from a high angle above. You felt, not saw, the depth. . . . The quick march to which enters Pizarro, the villain, saw a silent closing of curtains. This was new. They parted again on that "most massive scene" that has ever been set on this stage. Stone walls of a prison exterior towered fifty feet up in the air. Low arched gratings gave upon dungeons beneath. A solid wall, pierced by a stone stairway, led further up and out where tall cypress treetops could be seen in a glare of daylight. Only Gorky's Nachtasyi, in the days of Conried's German Irving Place [Theatre], has matched the picture of human misery presented when the wretches from the cells were driven, blinking, blind-eyed, out into that daylight by troops in uniforms. . . . The usual pause after this act, and before Act II, was made a long one. . . . There was not a sound when the orchestra began its poignant harmonies, a drawing of erased lines, a spirit-seance, from which all trace of the trite or obvious had vanished. Again the mind's eye sank to profounder regions as the scene opened. A man half dead lay on the floor of a cavern hewn from solid rock. A jailer and that mysterious person, "Another," dug a grave. They talked in awe, spoke jerkily, but spoke. Then they sangduet, trio and, atop of these, a quartet. As that expected murderer crept down all the zigzag of stairs, his cloaked body as a shadow on the wall, and hardly that, it was thrilling to see a great audience sway
94

Metropolitan Opera program for Fidelio conducted by Mahler, March 20, 1908.

forward in

its chairs,

keenly waiting.

The pistol;

the

trumpet"most dramatic

In the p a y b o o k for the 1 9 0 8 - 9 season, the balance has shifted, with both Mahler and Toscanini listed simply as "Conductor." Although Mahler was able to hold on to Tristan for a second season (Toscanini had wanted to bring over "his" production from La Scala), Toscanini in his first year became central to the functioning of the opera house. In 1908-9, Mahler conducted 23 times for a salary of $18,926, while Toscanini conducted 69 times with a salary of $ 3 1 , 2 0 0 . In his third and last Metropolitan season, Mahler led a scant four performances of Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades. In all, Gustav Mahler conducted 54 times at the Metropolitan Opera, 50 performances of opera and four

moment in all opera"did not fail. The music did not cease. The slow octave descent of Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, never so played before, was timed to a weird fall of curtains held apart,

imperceptibly yielding, with mesmeric magic. At the end of the ensuing music, after straining every nerve to catch its lightest pianissimo, the house went crazy in the dark. The riot of Mahler equalled that over Caruso in Trovatore. The conductor bowed and bowed. The last quick scene of shrill topnotes on a high rampart of the prison set the auditors blinking with dazzling light. Then recalls and flowers, and it was all over. The more liberties a man like Mahler takes with Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, the better for Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner. The cast of the opera . . . was a noble one.

concerts. His repertoite consisted of Mozart's Don Giovanni (6) and Le nozze di Figaro (8), Fidelio (4), Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (11), Die Walkre (5) and Siegfried (5),

Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades (4), and Smetana's Bartered Bride ( 7 ) . At two gala concerts, Mahler and Toscanini shared the podium. A l t h o u g h we tend to think of Toscanini as the

Mahler's success with Fidelio is filled with irony. By the time of its N e w York premiere the Roller production had already been retired in Vienna by Mahler's successor, Felix Weingartner. Best remembered in N e w York for Mahler's "innovation" of placing the Leonore N o . 3 between the two scenes of Act I I , this was in fact nothing new, since Anton Seidl had done the same at the M e t in the 1880s and it had been positioned there as early as 1849 in L o n d o n and Amsterdam. More significantly, Mahler's relationship with the opera had already changed. By the end of the 1907-8 season, the Conried O p e r a Company was out of existence. Mahler's four-year contract as " C h i e f Conductor" was null and void. In May, G i u l i o Gatti-Casazza made his first visit to N e w York and thereafter the newspaper that had been filled with Mahler shortly before were now preoccupied with Gatti and is 96 colleague, Arturo Toscanini.

younger m a n , suggesting a wide gap in their ages, the difference was only seven years. They are said to have had mutual respect for one another as conductors, even though the arrival of Toscanini effectively ended Mahler's operatic career in N e w York. Mahler died in 1911 while Toscanini lived until 1 9 5 7 , conducting almost to the end but never a note of Mahler's. In 1 9 0 5 , he had described Mahler as "not a genuine artist" and declared that his music has neither personality nor genius." However, time has a way of rearranging things and the final victory was Mahler's. C o m p o s e r s , or at least s o m e of them, live longer than conductors.

Robert Tuggle, Director of Archives at the Metropolitan Opera, biography of Kirsten Flagstad.

is currently at work on a 97

Gustav Mahler and the Guarantors:

The Management of Genius

by JACK KAMERMAN

S
98

ymphony orchestras, like all organizations, must balance the need to perform their primary task (making music, in this case) and the need to remain solvent. At the New York Philharmonic during the 1909-10 and part of the 1910-11 seasons, Gustav Mahler's work as a conductor was caught between these two often

conflicting goals. These organizational imperatives hold true for any occupational life, even the work of a genius in the arts. This insight is often lost because the giant shadows cast by figures like Mahler tend to obscure the humdrum of everyday life.
This announcement appeared in the March 1909 program, which was for Safonoff's farewell concert.

T h e Philharmonic Society of N e w York in Mahler's time was administered by the C o m m i t t e e of Guarantors, a committee largely the creation of Mary R. Sheldon, wife of the banker and Republican National C o m m i t t e e Treasurer, George R. Sheldon. T h e other pivot in Mahler's life at the Philharmonic was Minnie Untermyer, wife of the famous lawyer Samuel Untermyer. Corseted by the Gilded Age, these women were nonetheless in the arts what their husbands were in banking and the law: strong, shrewd, influential, and successful It is in the magnetic field created by the considerable personal and social force of these two w o m e n a n d of course a third, his wife A l m a t h a t Mahler's career at the Philharmonic and life in N e w York played themselves out. T h e year 1908 was a turning point in Mahler's brief career at the Metropolitan Opera. Giulio Gatti-Casazza had been appointed General Manager and had brought Arturo Toscanini with him from La Scala. It was soon clear that Toscanini was invading Mahler's repertoire and undermining his authority, as he was to do to Mengelberg at the Philharmonic two decades later. In terms of a conductor's need for artistic control and the organizational support that this control is invariably based on, Mahler's situation at the Metropolitan was precarious. That fact alone, even if the situation at the Philharmonic had not become so interesting, would have m a d e him susceptible to a career move. But the Committee's offer was e x c e e d i n g interesting. T h e y were offering g o o d money, the chance to rebuild the Orchestra to his specifications, and an opportunity to perform his own c o m p o s i t i o n s a hope that was realized only to a very small extent. From the Philharmonic's point of view, its artistic and financial condition had made 100 Mahler, the conductor and orchestra-builder, increasingly attractive. T h e Philharmonic in

1908, under Wassily Safanoff, was still a players' cooperative whose permanent performing members had dwindled to 3 7 , down from 64 in 1 8 9 7 . T h i s organizational structure may have worked well in the Orchestra's early years, but it was an anachronism in the increasingly rational cultural and financial world of the 20th century. (Interestingly, the Royal

Philharmonic Society of L o n d o n faced similar pressures in the same period, making it vulnerable in 1 9 1 6 to the takeover by T h o m a s Beecham, a sort of Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e of One. In other words, this relationship between structure and funding was not unique to New York.) In addition, the Philharmonic faced solid competition from Walter Damrosch's newly reinvigorated N e w York Symphony, which performed 28 concerts in N e w York City during the 1 9 0 7 - 0 8 season as compared with the Philharmonic's 16. T h e Philharmonic's financial condition was tenuous in spite of efforts to shore up its support. In 1 9 0 3 , many of these same guarantors had attempted to restructure the Philharmonic along the same lines as they now proposed. T h e members of the Philharmonic Society voted down the proposal because, in their eyes, their situation was not desperate enough, and because they did not want to lose artistic control over their concerts and administrative control over their society. But by 1 9 0 8 , when M r s . Sheldon advanced the idea again, the situation was ripe. With the help of Mrs. Untermyer, she organized the C o m m i t t e e of Guarantors and put together pledges totaling over $ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 to underwrite the three coming seasons, to create a permanent orchestra, and to bring Gustav Mahler to conduct the concerts and rebuild the Orchestra. This time, the offer to the Philharmonic Society proved irresistible. Mrs. Sheldon's approach to reconstructing the Philharmonic lay somewhere between the Wharton School of Business and the Edith Wharton school of social relations. To begin 101

with, she organized her committee strategically, choosing both men and women on the basis of their social contacts (their own or their access to considerable fortunes) and their commitment, for any of several reasons, to musical life in New York. Her two surviving letters in the N e w York Philharmonic's Archives are addressed to the Orchestra's manager, Felix Leifels, and list 120 guarantors and potential guarantors. The names on this list read like a New York pantheon of the wealthy and socially well-positioned. In businesslike fashion, by way of protecting an investment, the price she exacted for this financial security and artistic excellence was almost total control. As in Beecham's takeover in London, the Board of Directors of the Philharmonic ceased to exist except for a nominal board whose annual meetings were suspended and whose members were selected by the Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e . The C o m m i t t e e made all financial decisions, and either made of had veto power over all decisions relating to personnel, engagements, publicity, the number of concerts, repertoire, and soloists. At its annual meeting, held on February 12, 1909, the Philharmonic Society ceded control to the C o m m i t t e e : "Resolved that the Board of Directors be [sic] and it is hereby authorized and instructed to make such contracts and take such action as the C o m m i t t e e of the Guarantors shall designate, and especially to choose a conductor for the ensuing season upon such terms as such C o m m i t t e e shall specify." In the first season, 1 9 0 9 - 1 0 , this seemed to work to Mahler's advantage. Relations were amicable, particularly given the Mahlers' closeness to Minnie Untermyer and, equally important, to her husband, Samuel Untermyer. Samuel Untermyer was a gifted lawyer who

"The creator of the interminable symphony." A caricature of Mahler that appeared in a New 102 York newpaper, from the Metropolitan Opera pressbook for November 1908

could box men of the stature of J. P. Morgan into a corner (as he did at the Senate's Pujo Committee hearings in 1 9 1 2 ) . He had successfully represented artists like Mary Garden and was a consummate negotiator who would steer Mahler through several crises with the Guarantors' Committee. By the second season, however, relations between Mahler and the C o m m i t t e e were strained. At the Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e meeting of January 4, 1 9 1 1 , several matters central to Mahler's position at the Philharmonic came up. First, Mahler's request for $ 5 , 0 0 0 to conduct an extra 20 concerts during the current season was submitted to arbitration. The C o m m i t t e e wished these concerts to be added without compensation to Mahler. However "the decision of the arbitrator [Samuel Untermyer] was rendered against the Committee [and] Mr. M a h l e r . . . consented, at the suggestion of Mr. Unrermyer, to reduce his claim to $ 3 , 0 0 0 " (Minutes of the C o m m i t t e e of Guarantors, January 4, 1 9 1 1 ) . At the same meeting a letter from Franz Kneisel was read in which he responded to the Committee's offer of appointment to the post of conductor for the following season. T h e Minutes mention that Kneisel had written that, while "he would feel highly honored to accept the position, "he could not leave "his present field of activity [leader of the Kneisel Quartet] for a contract of one year only." The Minutes of that meeting go on to say that the C o m m i t t e e instructed the Orchestra's manager L o u d o n Charlton to "unofficially inquire from Mr. Mahler his attitude regarding the acceptance of the position of conductor for next season and also his terms.' T h e Minutes of the following meeting a week later mention that "Mr. Mahler has expressed his willingness to conduct 90 to 100 concerts for $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 . " At the next meeting on January 18, the C o m m i t t e e instructed Charlton to get those terms in writing. At the last meeting of 104 January, the formation of two subcommittees, one devoted to finance, one devoted in

programming, was approved. What followed was the incident that has c o m e to symbolize the perception of Mahler's overwhelming problems with the C o m m i t t e e : the infamous meeting between Mahler and certain members of the C o m m i t t e e at Mrs. Sheldon's house at 24 East 38th Street in midFebruary of 1 9 1 1 . As described by Alma Mahler in Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters, Mahler was told exactly what he could and could not do, both verbally and in the form of a legal document drawn up from notes taken by a lawyer who was present, and who e m e r g e d from behind a curtain drawn aside "at a word from Mrs. Sheldon. . . . He was so taken aback and so furious that he came back to me trembling in every limb; and it was only by degrees that he was able to take any pleasure in his work." Alma also mentions that "He decided to ignore all these ladies in the future. T h e only exception was Mrs. Untermeyer [sic], his guardian angel. She was away at this time; otherwise nothing of all this could have happened." Perhaps, and perhaps not. With or without Mrs. Untermyer, the Committee, having been backed into accepting Mahler for another season, would almost certainly have felt the need to demonstrate its control over its conductor, although perhaps in a less heavy-handed manner. It is probably this incident that prompted Loudon Charlton's remark in an interview he gave in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune of March 2 8 , 1912, a year after Mahler's death. Confirming the rumor that he would be leaving the Philharmonic, Charlton commented on the parallel between his troubles at the Philharmonic and Stokowski's at the Cincinnati Symphony: " S a m e as it seems to be here," he said, "too many women." "Is that what killed Mahler?" asked the reporter. "It is. Poor Mahler. He used to say every time the doorbell rang: 105

'Here comes another fat woman; now for more trouble.' " Of course, as Henry-Louis de La Grange makes clear in his essay "Mahler and the New York Philharmonic: T h e Truth Behind the Legend," it was endocarditis that killed Mahler, not his troubles with the women of the Committee. Mahler's relations with the C o m m i t t e e are central to an understanding of Mahler's career in N e w York and the mythology that has grown around it. While assessing his success or failure in N e w York is beyond the scope of a brief article, a few points may help to frame the answer. First, there is apparently a great need to see Mahler as a martyr, in this instance, to the financial concerns of his patrons, not at all like the worldly Richard Strauss, who handled himself with distinction in the marketing of his art. Why has this myth persisted? Part of the reason is the resilience of the 19th-century notion, tied perhaps to the preponderance of 19th-century works in the repertoire of most orchestras, that great artists are inevitably unappreciated in their own lifetimes. Part of the answer may have to do with the tendency to use the present to refract our view of the past. Elie Siegmeister in his Music and Society saw geniuses like Haydn as victims of the aristocracy, made to sit with the other servants and wear the livery of their oppressors. Young Haydn took another view, writing h o m e proudly to his family about how splendid he looked in the livery of the Esterhzy family and how proud he was to be in their service. For all of his complaints, Mahler liked the Philharmonic post enough to seek it and to commit to it until his illness interceded. Part of the myth's persistence may stem from Viennese guilt. Mahler wasn't the first musician in Vienna ill treated in life and canonized in death. 106 T h e need to see Mahler as a martyr and the tendency to reconstruct the past from the Jack Kamerman is a Professor of Sociology at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. In collaboration with Desmond Mark, of the Hochschule fr Musik und darstellende Kunst in point of view of the present are also responsible in part for the notion that Mahler had a pathological preoccupation with death because of the atypically great number of his siblings who died. As Kurt Blaukopf pointed out in Mahler, it may have been an atypically great number for our time, but not for Mahler's. Second, when it comes to fixing blame, historians and biographers (two major exceptions mentioned above) tend to "round up the usual suspects" and hang the usual villains. Mrs. Sheldon in particular has gotten a bad shake, perhaps because the audience for music history resents the intrusion of commercial considerations into "pure art," much more perhaps than performing artists themselves. But one thing is very clear: If it hadn't been for Mrs. Sheldon and her committee, in all likelihood Mahler would not have had the opportunity to build a great orchestra, nor to perform his music in the United States to even the limited extent that he did, nor, for that matter, to make the money he made. Whether or not it fits our ideas about great art or about the role of such women in its production, it was the Mrs. Sheldons of the world of early 20th-century music who enabled geniuses like Mahler to fulfill their destinies.

Vienna, he is currently at work on a book about Mahler in New York and Vienna.

107

Mary Sheldon:

A Woman of Substance
by MARION R. CASEY
his a g i t a t i o n s e e m s t o h a v e b e e n s t a r t e d b y t w o o r three restless w o m e n w i t h n o o c c u p a t i o n a n d m o r e m o n e y t h a n they s e e m t o k n o w w h a t t o d o w i t h , " c h a r g e d a n a n g r y Walter D a m r o s c h i n t h e p a g e s o f The New York Times i n A u g u s t 1 9 0 8 . H e t h e n d i s m i s s e d M r s . G e o r g e R . ( M a r y ) Sheldon a n d the nascent Philharmonic Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e with the opinion, "There are p e o p l e t o w h o m m u s i c i s o n l y f o o d for n e r v o u s e x c i t e m e n t a n d e a c h successive E u r o p e a n celebrity v i s i t i n g this c o u n t r y a toy to p l a y w i t h . " D a m r o s c h w a s r e s p o n d i n g to

Engagement portrait for the 18-year-old Mary Seney, later Mrs. Sheldon, 108 painted by G.P.A. Healy in 1881.

an interview M r s . Sheldon gave to the Times c o r r e s p o n d e n t in Paris, in w h i c h she a n n o u n c e d that G u s t a v Mahler w o u l d c o n d u c t a s y m p h o n y orchestra in N e w York for the 1 9 0 9 - 1 0 season. M r s . Sheldon had spent the spring of 1908 engaging Mahler for two festival concerts at Carnegie Hall that c o m i n g winter. In April she told The New York Times, "Mr. Mahler's influence has been deeply felt at the Metropolitan O p e r a H o u s e this winter a n d we have to t h a n k Mr. [Heinrich] C o n r i e d for bringing h i m over. W h i l e he is here it would be a pity if he should n o t have a chance to c o n d u c t purely orchestral music with an orchestra of his own. Since the idea first came to me I have talked it over with m a n y of my friends, a n d all of t h e m have been extremely enthusiastic." By the time M r s . Sheldon spoke to the press again that s u m m e r , she had already been to M u n i c h to solicit advice from Richard Strauss and Felix M o t t l a b o u t improving the Orchestra and, according to the Times, had "already raised a large subscription fund." W h a t peeved D a m r o s c h , however, was not M r s . Sheldon's interest in Mahler. It was her claim that " N e w York orchestras at present are n o t worthy" a n d her d e t e r m i n a t i o n "to go ahead a n d form a n o t h e r " that w o u l d be "the greatest orchestra America has ever heard." D a m r o s c h was no d o u b t aggravated to read M r s . Sheldon's account of a meeting in May with Richard Arnold, revealing that the t h o u g h t of a third s y m p h o n y orchestra in New York had m a d e the P h i l h a r m o n i c Society nervous. According to Sheldon, Arnold reportedly said: " T h e r e is n o t r o o m for a n o t h e r orchestra in N e w York; let's p u t the two organizations together and let M a h l e r c o n d u c t o u r orchestra." If the story is true, M r s . Sheldon m u s t have been delighted at Arnold's capitulation to 110 a plan she a n d several other wealthy N e w Yorkers (along with Walter D a m r o s c h ) had put

forward as early as 1903 a n d w h i c h the O r c h e s t r a t a k i n g exception to the idea of giving up control of the organization's financesrejected. On the other hand, it is possible that Mrs. Sheldon had just executed a clever political maneuver to pressure the P h i l h a r m o n i c to come a r o u n d to her p o i n t of view. Offering the P h i l h a r m o n i c to Mahler in 1 9 0 9 - 1 0 came is a surprise to The New York Times, w h i c h was u n d e r the impression that the Orchestra had c o m m i t t e d to Wassily Safonoff. Mrs. Sheldon took the o p p o r t u n i t y of this Times Interview to clearly restate the G u a r a n t o r s ' prerequisites:

It would be necessary to make many changes in the organization.

The strings, I

think, could scarcely be improved, but some of the other parts would have to be reinforced. Then a certain number of our board would have to be placed on the Philharmonic board. . . . [As Strauss and Mottl suggested,] it would be best to plan the season of our orchestra to last thirty weeks, and that is another as their present season

arrangement which must be made with the Philharmonic,

lasts only sixteen. . . . I shall see Mr. Arnold immediately upon my return. It

That winter the r u m o r mill a b o u n d e d with reports of the potential rehabilitation of the Philharmonic. Mrs. Sheldon was coy with the press; on D e c e m b e r 9, 1908, the N e w York Sun wrote that she was "not quite ready to give o u t " details. T w o days later, in a letter to the editor of The New York Times, M r s . Sheldon revealed what, on the surface, seemed to be a fundamental shift in her t h i n k i n g since April: "So far as we can see there is n o t h i n g 'hysterical' a b o u t this plan, b u t a plain and c o m m o n s e n s e a t t e m p t to save s o m e t h i n g that

is very well worth saving, and benefiting thereby the musical life of N e w York. N o r is it, may say, an attempt to form an orchestra for the benefit of any one conductor." The phoenix of the 1903 plan was rising from the ashes! By February the following year, Mrs. Sheldon's proposed restructuring had indeed been accepted, paving the way for Mahler's engagement with the Philharmonic beginning in the autumn of 1 9 0 9 . T h e historic reorganization plan was signed by Mary and George Sheldon, Ruth D a n a Draper, Henry Lane Eno, Ernest H. Schelling, and Nelson S. Spencer. Walter Damrosch's characterization of the Guarantors as "two or three restless women with no occupation and more money than they seem to know what to do with," as well as Loudon Charlton's remark that Mahler's subsequent troubles with the Guarantors were the result of "too many women," obscure the intelligence, business acumen, political savvy, and cultural sophistication of these women and men. Mary Seney Sheldon was the descendant of men who had been actively involved in the early American republic: Joshua Seney represented Maryland in the Continental Congress and J a m e s Nicholson was one of the first commodores in the United States Navy. Her grandfather, Robert Seney, was a graduate of C o l u m b i a College and a Methodist minister who preached in Astoria (in present-day Queens County, New York). His son was the well known banker, philanthropist, and art collector George Ingraham Seney ( 1 8 2 6 - 9 3 ) , who was educated at Wesleyan and N e w York University. George Seney married Phoebe Moser of a prominent Brooklyn family, in 1849 and their daughter, Mary, one of nine children was born on July 3, 1 8 6 3 . By the time she was a teenager, the Seney family was living at Montague Terrace in "one of the finest houses in Brooklyn," and her father was the 112 president of the Metropolitan Bank in Manhattan, which was a national institution.

Mary Seney Sheldon grew up in a philanthropic family. In 1 8 8 1 , George Seney gave half a million dollars to establish the Methodist Hospital in what is now Park Slope, Brooklyn. T h a t same year, he also gave away 18-year-old Mary as the bride of George Rumsey Sheldon, a Harvard graduate who had his own banking firm in N e w York City. Within three years, as a result of the panic of 1884, the Seney family was forced to sell its home as well as auction off nearly 3 0 0 of George Seney's fine collection of paintings to pay depositors. Despite this setback, Mary Seney Sheldon's father still made major charitable contributions to local institutions like the Industrial H o m e for Homeless Children, the Eye and Ear Infirmary, the Long Island (now Brooklyn) Historical Society, and the Brooklyn Library. After her father's death in 1893, Mary Sheldon continued this philanthropic tradition by personally supervising many of these benefactions. In 1908, Mary Sheldon was a 45-year-old worldly woman with financial and political experience under her belt, when she maneuvered to put Mahler on the Philharmonic's podium and determined to build "the greatest orchestra America has ever heard." She had two daughters, kept a yacht at Glen Cove on L o n g Island, and opened her h o m e in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan's east side for frequent musicales. Mary Sheldon had watched her husband, a high-level Republican official, help put Charles Evans Hughes in the governor's mansion in Albany in 1906 and Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in the White House in 1904 and 1908. Her colleagues in the endeavor to reorganize the Philharmonic were 60-year-old Ruth D a n a Draper, the daughter of the publisher of the New York Sun and the widow of a prominent professor of clinical medicine at C o l u m b i a , Dr. William Draper, who had also been a gifted musician; and Nelson S. Spencer, a 52-year-old pioneer in the 113

artificial silk industry and a public-interest lawyer who had been counsel for Governor Hughes in 1907. Two younger men rounded out the core of Mrs. Sheldon's group: Henry Lane Eno, at 37 years of age President of the Fifth Avenue Building Co. but far better known in cultural and intellectual circles as a psychologist, poet, and author (his verse play Baglioni was published in 1905); and the European-trained pianist and composer Ernest H. Schelling, age 32, "a connoisseur of books, prints and objects of art" whose wife, Lucy How Draper, had been one of the signatories of the original 1903 plan. Supporting Mrs. Sheldon's reorganization efforts were sustaining members of the Guarantors' Committee who made three-year financial pledges. These included wealthy men like John D. Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, August Belmont, and Thomas Fortune Ryan, but also some formidable women. Harriet (Mrs. Charles Beatty) Alexander and Mary (Mrs. Edward H.) Harriman, both prominent hostesses and philanthropists in their own right, served as Philharmonic Guarantors and, in spite of Walter Damrosch's comments about rich ladies, also as directors of the Symphony Society (so did Henry Lane Eno). Not least among the women of the Guarantors was Minnie Carl (Mrs. Samuel) Untermyer, the daughter of a German political refugee and the wife of the prominent attorney. Their town house at 2 East 54th Street was open to a wide variety of artists, musicians, and statesmen. Untermyer was a delegate to the National Democratic conventions in 1904 and 1908, yet when it came to musical matters, political affiliations were set aside. He had served as legal counsel for Damrosch, Sheldon, and others who 114 Profile of Gustav Mahler, 1909.

proposed the takeover of the Philharmonic in 1903. With Mahler in the city, Mary Sheldon now worked with Minnie Untermyer, Ruth Dana Draper, and others to resurrect the 1903 plan. Their C o m m i t t e e for the two Festival Concerts, which evolved into the Philharmonic Guarantors' C o m m i t t e e , drew up a circular letter in April 1908 that declared:

On May 2 8 , 1912, Mary R. Seney Sheldon became the first woman elected President of the New York Philharmonic, a position not to be held by a woman again for nearly seven decades. She died after a long illness on June 16, 1 9 1 3 , a month shy of her 50th birthday, Mahler's age when he died just two years before. As late as May 2 2 , she hosted in her home what was to be the last meeting of the Executive C o m m i t t e e of the Board of Directors

We feel that a man of Mr. Mahler's eminence who has entered so wholly into the spirit of training a really fine orchestra for this City, will have trained the men to such a degree of perfection, that, if in the future, another conductor should have to be considered, this orchestra already formed, shall be of such a standard of excellence as to appeal to other eminent conductors should the moment arise to engage them. Mr. Mahler sees the promise of the very best in orchestral

before her death. T h e minutes of their first gathering after her death, in an unusually long tribute, express "the great affection and regard in which she was held by all its members," recording "her untiring services to the Society and the cause of music and . . . the immeasurable loss which the Society and the individual members of the Board will suffer in their deprivation of her presence and of her activities." Mary Sheldon worked both behind the scenes and in the public eye nearly 100 years ago to strengthen the New York Philharmonic financially and artistically, bringing it into the modern world. Through her efforts, the sum of $ 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 (equal to $3.4 million today) was raised to support the Orchestra at the very moment that Gustav Mahler assumed its musical

development in this country and it only rests with us to determine whether we will support the best.

Two and a half years later, in November 1910, the Musical Courier confirmed Mary Sheldon's vision. "A woman, forceful as well as tender, with a consuming love of art and a deep love for humanity, has, by the aid of a few friends and her own determination provided New York with a great orchestra, a thing that never existed until this new combination took matters in hand. Like almost every one who does something

leadership. T h e confluence of these two achievements was pivotal in the history of the Orchestra, setting a new standard of excellence for the future. Mary Sheldon would be pleased to see her vision fulfilled, carrying the Orchestra's Mahler legacy into the 21st century.

extraordinary for the world, this woman, outside of her immediate circle of friends and acquaintances, has not received the appreciation due her. Mrs. George R. Sheldon . . . is the lady who has wrought this marvel, and it is high time the American musical public was 116 convinced of the fact."

Marion R. Casey is an adjunct professor of American history at New York University. Assistant Archivist for the New York Philharmonic from 1985 to 1990, she ivas Historian and Associate Producer of the video documentary From Shore to Shore: Irish Traditional Music in New York City (1993) and a contributor to T h e Encyclopedia of New York City (Yale, 1995). 117

Mahler as Conductor

BEETHOVEN Overture, "The Consecration of the House"

Mahler as Conductor:
The New York Philharmonic Performances

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3

LISZT Mazeppa

WAGNER Gtterdmmerung: Siegfried's Funeral Music WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I Nov. 2 5 , 2 6 , 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall Teresa Carreo, piano
BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

R . STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Nov. 1 0 , 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall Corinne Rider-Kelsey, soprano Theodore Spiering, violin BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra H A N D E L Flavio: "Quanto dolci" BACH Violin Concerto in E major R A M E A U Dardanus: Rigaudon from Suite No. 2 GRTRY Cphale et Procris: Recitative and Aria
HAYDN Symphony No. 104

BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra WEBER Konzertstck in F minor for Piano DUKAS The Sorcerers Apprentice Dec. 3 , 1 9 0 9 Brooklyn Academy of Music, Maud Powell, violin

*Nov. 2 9 , 1 9 0 8 Carnegie Hall

SCHUMANN Symphony No. 1

Mar. 3 1 , 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall SCHUMANN "Manfred" Overture

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

NY

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5

BEETHOVEN "Coriolan" Overture SMETANA The Bartered Bride: Overture WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act 1 *Dec. 8, 1 9 0 8 Carnegie Hall Laura L. Combs, soprano Gertrude Stein Bailey, alto Oratorio Society
MAHLER Symphony No. 2

WAGNER Siegfried Idyll WAGNER Tannhuser: Overture Apr. 6, 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall Corinne Rider-Kelsey, soprano Janet Spencer, contralto Daniel Beddoe, tenor Herbert Watrous, bass Bach Choir of Montclair BEETHOVEN "Egmont" Overture
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9

Nov. 1 9 , 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall BEETHOVEN Fidelio: Overture

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 2

BEETHOVEN Leonore: Overture No. 3 MENDELSSOHN Concerto in E minor for Violin Op. 64 WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I Dec. 8, 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall Bella Alten, soprano
MOZART Symphony No. 41

BEETHOVEN Leonore: Overture No. 1 BEETHOVEN Leonore: Overture No. 2 BEETHOVEN Leonore: Overture No. 3 Nov. 2 1 , 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall Charles Gilibert, baritone
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3

*Dec. 1 3 , 1 9 0 8 Carnegie Hall

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

HAYDN The Creation: "On Mighty Pens" MOZART The Marriage of Figaro: "Deh vieni non tardar"
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5

120

WAGNER "Faust" Overture WEBER Oberon: Overture

Nov. 4, 5, 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall

* Symphony Society Orchestra

Xerxes: "Ombra mai fu" BIZET La Jolie Fille de Perth: Aria MASSENET Le Jongleur de Notre Dame: Legende de la sauge
HANDEL

Dec. 1 2 , 1 9 0 9 Carnegie Hall Yolande Mr, piano

BEETHOVEN Symphony N o . 5 LISZT Piano Concerto N o . 2 R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche DVOK Scherzo Capriccioso
D e c . 16, 17, 1 9 0 9

J a n . 8, 1 9 1 0

Jan. 2 0 , 2 1 , 1 9 1 0

Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY Gustav Mahler, harpsichord Ferruccio Busoni, piano BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra SCHUBERT-LISZT "Wanderer" Fantasy WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and "Liebestod" R.STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
J a n . 14, 1 9 1 0

Carnegie Hall TCAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6 WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and " Liebestod" SMETANA T h e Bartered Bride: Overture
Jan. 2 6 , 1 9 1 0

Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY Tilly Koenen, contralto SCHUMANN Symphony N o . 4 BEETHOVEN "Ah, Perfido" R. STRAUSS Don Juan R. STRAUSS "Hymnus" M. FIEDLER " T h e Tambourine Player" WOLF Song, "Er ist's" with orchestra accompaniment WAGNER Tannhuser: Overture (Dresden version)
Feb. 13, 1 9 1 0

Carnegie Hall SCHUBERT Symphony N o . 8 BEETHOVEN "Coriolan" Overture MAHLER Symphony N o . 1

Dec. 29, 1909

Carnegie Hall
Jan. 28, 1910

Carnegie Hall Maud Powell, violin SCHUBERT Symphony N o . 8 MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor SCHUMANN Symphony N o . 4
Dec. 31, 1909

Carnegie Hall BEETHOVEN Symphony N o . 6 Intermission BEETHOVEN Symphony N o . 5

J a n . 16, 1 9 1 0

Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY Ludwig Wllner, baritone BRAHMS Symphony N o . 3 MAHLER Kindertotenlieder
WEINGARTNER

DVOK Overture, "Amid Nature" Songs, "Erdriese" and " Letzter Tanz" accompaniment

Carnegie Hall Pasquale Amato, baritone WAGNER "Kaiser-Marsch" WAGNER "Faust" Overture WAGNER Siegfried Idyll WAGNER Die Walkre: Wotans Farewell and Magic Fire Scene WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I WAGNER Die Meistersinger: "Wahn! Wahn!" WAGNER Tannhuser: Overture (Dresden version)
Feb. 17,18, 1 9 1 0

Carnegie Hall Maud Powell, violin BEETHOVEN "Egmont" Overture, BEETHOVEN "Coriolan" Overture, BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto in D major BEETHOVEN Symphony N o . 4
J a n . 6, 7, 1 9 1 0

Carnegie Hall Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano Gustav Mahler, harpsichord BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra RACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto N o . 3 WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and "Liebestod" SMETANA The Bartered Bride: Overture
J a n . 17, 1 9 1 0

WOLF Song, "Anakreons Grab" with orchestra WOLF Song, "Der Rattenfnger"
S M E T A NA

The Bartered Bride: Overture

Jan. 3 0 , 1 9 1 0

Carnegie Hall Paolo Gallico, piano GRIEG Sigurd Jorsalfar: Triumphal March BEETHOVEN "Coriolan" Overture SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A minor BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique
Feb. 3, 4, 1 9 1 0

Carnegie Hall MacDowell Chorus TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy DEBUSSY Nocturnes WAGNER "Faust" Overture WAGNER Siegfried Idyll BERLIOZ "Roman Carnival" Overture 123

Carnegie Hall Ferruccio Busoni, piano BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique SCHUBERT-LISZT "Wanderer" Fantasy WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I 122

Philadelphia, PA BEETHOVEN Symphony N o . 5 SMETANA The Bartered Bride: Overture R.STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I

Carnegie Hall
Feb. 1 1 , 1 9 1 0

Feb. 23, 1910

New Haven, CT Olga Samaroff, piano BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra GRIEG Piano Concerto in A minor R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche

R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche

Mar. 2, 1910
Carnegie Hall Carl Jrn, tenor WAGNER Der fliegende Hollnder: Overture WAGNER Lohengrin: Prelude Act I WAGNER Parsifal: Prelude to Act I WAGNER Die Walkre: Siegmund's Love Song WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prize Song WAGNER Gtterdmmerung: Siegfried's Funeral Music LISZT Les Prludes
LISZT Mazeppa

Turandot, Op. 41: Suite Violin Concerto in D major DEBUSSY Prlude l'aprs-midi d'un faune
BUSONI BRAHMS

R. STRAUSS Tod und Verklrung

Mar. 14, 1910

Philadelphia, PA Fritz Kreisler, violin BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique B E E T H O V E N Violin Concerto in D major WAGNER Tannhuser: Overture (Dresden version)

WAGNER Rienzi: "The Messengers of Peace" BRAHMS Gesang aus Fingal SCHUBERT "Serenade" VlEUXTEMPS Violin Concerto No. 5 BEETHOVEN Leonore: Overture No. 3 SMETANA The Bartered Bride: ["Es muss gelingen"] LlSZT Les Prludes

Feb. 24, 1910

Springfield, MA Corinne Rider-Kelsey, soprano BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra HANDEL Flavio: Aria, "Quanto dolci" MOZART The Marriage of Figaro: Aria, "Voi che sapete" R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I

Mar. 30, 1910

Carnegie Hall PFITZNER Christelflein: Overture
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4

Mar. 18, 1910

Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY Corinne Rider-Kelsey, soprano WAGNER Der fliegende Hollnder: Overture WAGNER "Faust" Overture WAGNER Siegfried Idyll WAGNER Tannhuser: "Dich, teure Halle" WAGNER Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I WAGNER "Wesendonk-Lieder" (orchestrated by Felix Mottl)
WAGNER "Kaiser-Marsch"

Mar. 4, 1910
Carnegie Hall Olga Samaroff, piano BEETHOVEN Overture, "Namensfeier" BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

R. STRAUSS Guntram: Two Preludes (from Act I and Act II) R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche

Apr. 1, 2, 1910
Carnegie Hall Corinne Rider-Kelsey, soprano Viola Waterhouse, soprano Janet Spencer, contralto Dan Beddoe, tenor Paul DuFault, tenor Herbert Watrous, bass Ernest Hutcheson, piano Bach Choir of Montclair BEETHOVEN Fantasia in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9

Feb. 25, 1910

Providence, RI Theodore Spiering, violin BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique VIEUXTEMPS Violin Concerto No. 5 R. STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I

Mar. 6, 1910
Carnegie Hall Josef Lhevinne, piano TCHAIKOVSKY Romeo and Juliet, Overture-Fantasy
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6

Mar. 27, 1910

Carnegie Hall Carl Jrn, tenor Edna Showalter, soprano Janet Spencer, contralto Theodore Spiering, violin MacDowell Chorus W A G N E R Der fliegende Hollnder: Overture W A G N E R Die Meistersinger: Prize Song

Feb. 26, 1910

Boston, MA Arthur Hyde, organ BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra BEETHOVEN Leonore, Overture No. 3

TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1 TCHAIKOVSKY "1812" Overture

Mar. 10, 11, 1910

Carnegie Hall Fritz Kreisler, violin

Nov. 1, 4, 1910
Carnegie Hall

124

Nov. 6, 1910

125

Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY Gustav Mahler, harpsichord

BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra SCHUBERT Symphony No. 9

"Hubicka" (arr. Schindler) MAHLER "Ging Heut' Morgen bers Feld"

MAHLER "Rheinlegendchen" DVOK "Carnival" Overture SMETANA "The Moldau"

MENDELSSOHN Midsummer Night's Dream: Ouverture Dec. 5, 1910 Pittsburgh, PA Gustav Mahler, harpsichord BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 Intermission WAGNER Tristan und Isolde: Prelude and " Liebestod" WAGNER Siegfried Idyll WAGNER Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I Dec. 6, 1910 Cleveland, OH, Grays Armory [Program of Dec. 5] Dec. 7, 1910 Buffalo, NY, Convention Hall [ Program of Dec. 5] Dec. 8, 1910 Rochester, NY, Convention Hall [Program of Dec. 5] Dec. 9, 1910 Syracuse, NY, Wieting Opera House [ Program of Dec. 5] Dec. 10, 1910 Utica, NY, The Majestic Theatre [ Program of Dec. 5]

MOZART Idomeneo: Ballet Music

MOZART German Dances

R. STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

Nov. 13, 1910 Carnegie Hall

WEBER Der Freischtz: Overture TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5

Nov. 22, 25, 1910 Carnegie Hall Alma Gluck, soprano

CHERUBINI Anacron: Overture SCHUMANN Symphony No. 2

Dec. 13, 16, 1910 Carnegie Hall Xaver Scharwenka, piano BEETHOVEN "King Stephen" Overture BEETHOVEN "Coriolan" Overture BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 8 BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5 BEETHOVEN Leonore: Overture No. 3 Dec. 18, 1910 Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY Dec. 27, 30, 1910 Carnegie Hall Edouard Dethier, violin TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 2 TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto in D major TCHAIKOVSKY Suite No. 1 in D minor Jan. 1, 1911 Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY Johanna Gadski, soprano WAGNER Rienzi: Overture WAGNER Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I WAGNER Lohengrin: "Einsam in trben Tagen" WAGNER Tannhuser: "Dich, teure Halle" WAGNER Gtterdmmerung: Immolation Scene WAGNER Tannhuser: Overture Jan. 3, 6, 1911 Carnegie Hall Jan. 8, 1911 Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY

Intermission BERLIOZ La Damnation de Faust, Op. 24: Menuet de Follets, Dance of the Sylphs, Rakoczy March LISZT Mephisto Waltz No. 1

Intermission SMETANA Bohemian "Cradle Song" from "Hubicka"(arr. Schindler) MAHLER "Ging heut' Morgen bers Feld"
MAHLER "Rheinlegendchen" DVOK "Carnival" Overture SMETANA "The Moldau"

Nov. 15, 18, 1910 Carnegie Hall Josef Hofmann, piano

SCHUMANN "Manfred" Overture

DEBUSSY Images pour orchestra: Rondes de Printemps, No. 3 Intermission

SAINT-SAENS Piano Concerto No. 4 BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

Nov. 27, 1910 Carnegie Hall Xaver Scharwenka, piano

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade, Op. 35 SCHARWENKA Piano Concerto No. 4 CHABRIER

Espaa

Nov. 20, 1910 Brooklyn Academy of Music Alma Gluck, soprano 126 SMETANA Bohemian "Cradle Song" from
SCHUMANN "Manfred" Overture BRAHMS Symphony No. 1

Nov. 29, Dec. 2, 1910 Carnegie Hall Francis Macmillen, violin ELGAR Variations on an Original Theme ("Enigma") GOLDMARK Violin Concerto in A minor MOZART Symphony No. 40

127

Edmond Clement, tenor MacDowell Chorus ENESCO Suite No. 1 for Orchestra
L A L O Le Roi d'Ys: Aubade

W A G N E R Tannhuser: Overture (Dresden version) W A G N E R Gtterdmmerung: Siegfried's Funeral M u s i c W A G N E R Gtterdmmerung: Brnnhilde's Immolation Jan. 1 7 , 2 0 , 1 9 1 1 Carnegie Hall Bella Alten, soprano PFITZNER Kthchen von Heilbronn: Overture
M A H L E R S y m p h o n y No. 4 R. STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben

Jan. 2 7 , 1 9 1 1 C a r n e g i e Hall Johanna Gadski, soprano WAGNER Der fliegende Hollnder: Overture WAGNER Tannhuser: Overture a n d Venusberg Music (Paris Version) WAGNER Tannhuser: "Dich, teure Halle" WAGNER Tannhuser: Prayer WAGNER Wesendonk Song No. 5, "Trume" (arr. W a g n e r ) WAGNER Parsifal: Prelude to Act I and Glorification (arr. Seidl) WAGNER Tristan u n d Isolde: Prelude a n d " Liebestod" WAGNER Die Walkre: Ride of the Valkyries WAGNER Die Walkre: Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Scene Jan. 3 1 , Feb. 3 , 1 9 1 1 C a r n e g i e Hall MENDELSSOHN Overture, " Z u m M r c h e n von der schnen Melusine" SCHUMANN S y m p h o n y No. 3 Intermission WAGNER Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I BIZET Suite No. 3, "Roma" Feb. 5 , 1 9 1 1 C a r n e g i e Hall Ernest Hutcheson, piano
LALO Le Roi d'Ys: Overture SCHUBERT S y m p h o n y No. 8

Piano a n d Orchestra, Op. 2 3 Intermission W A G N E R Der fliegende Hollnder: Overture W A G N E R Siegfried: Forest M u r m u r s ("Waldweben") W A G N E R Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I Feb. 7 , 1 0 , 1 9 1 1 Carnegie Hall David Bispham, baritone BERLIOZ Romeo et Juliette, Op. 17: Romeo Alone, Capulet's Festival, Love Scene, Queen M a b Scherzo W A G N E R Die Meistersinger: Introduction to Act III W A G N E R Die Meistersinger: Monologue of H a n s Sachs R. STRAUSS "Pilgers M o r g e n l i e d " Intermission
BEETHOVEN S y m p h o n y No. 7

M A S S E N E T Le Mage: Air de Zarastra M A S S E N E T M a n o n : Le Rve de des Grieux DEBUSSY Images pour orchestra: Ibria Intermission BIZET L'Arlsienne: Suite No. 1
C H A B R I E R Ode la M u s i q u e CHABRIER Espaa

Jan. 1 0 , 1 3 , 1 9 1 1 Carnegie Hall Johanna Gadski, soprano W A G N E R "Faust" Overture W A G N E R Wesendonk-Lieder (orchestrated by Felix Mottl) W A G N E R Der fliegende Hollnder: Overture W A G N E R Tristan u n d Isolde: Prelude a n d "Liebestod" W A G N E R Siegfried Idyll W A G N E R Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I Jan. 1 5 , 1 9 1 1 Carnegie Hall Jan. 2 9 , 1 9 1 1 Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY J o h a n n a Gadski, soprano W A G N E R Rienzi: Overture W A G N E R Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I W A G N E R Lohengrin: Elsa's Dream W A G N E R Tannhuser: "Dich, teure Halle"

Jan. 2 2 , 1 9 1 1 Carnegie Hall G O L D M A R K Overture, "In the Spring"

TCHAIKOVSKY S y m p h o n y No. 6

W E B E R - W E I N G A R T N E R "Invitation to the Dance"

L I S Z T Tasso

Jan. 2 4 , 1 9 1 1 Washington, DC Johanna Gadski, soprano W A G N E R Der fliegende Hollnder: Overture W A G N E R Lohengrin: Prelude to Act I W A G N E R Tannhuser: Overture (Dresden version) W A G N E R Tannhuser: "Dich, teure Halle" W A G N E R Lohengrin: "Elsas Dream" W A G N E R Siegfried Idyll W A G N E R Tristan u n d Isolde: Prelude and "Liebestod" W A G N E R Die Meistersinger: Prelude to Act I

Feb. 1 2 , 1 9 1 1 Brooklyn Academy of Music, David Bispham, baritone W E B E R Oberon: Overture NY

TCHAIKOVSKY S y m p h o n y No. 6

128

Intermission W A G N E R Die Meistersinger: Introduction to Act III W A G N E R Die Meistersinger: Finale and Sach's Address R. STRAUSS "Pilgers M o r g e n l i e d " LlSZT Les Prludes 129

M A C D O W E L L Concerto No. 2 in D minor for

Feb. 14, 17, 1911

Carnegie Hall Louise Kirkby Lunn, contralto Frank L. Sealy, organ CHADWICK Dramatic Overture, "Melpomene" STANFORD Symphony, F minor ELGAR Sea Pictures Intermission LOEFFLER "La Villanelle du Diable" MACDOWELL "The Saracens" MACDOWELL "Die schne Alda" HADLEY "The Culprit Fay"

Feb. 16, 1911

Hartford, CT [Program of Feb. 15]

Feb. 1 9 , 1 9 1 1
Carnegie Hall Fredric Fradkin, violin WEBER Oberon: Overture BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7 Intermission MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E minor LISZT Les Prludes

Feb. 15, 1911

New Haven, CT, Wookey Hall Gustav Mahler, harpsichord BACH-MAHLER Suite for Orchestra BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 Intermission WEBER-WEINGARTNER "Invitation to the Dance" LlSZT Les Prludes

Feb. 21, 1911

Carnegie Hall Ernesto Consolo, piano SINIGAGLIA Le baruffe Chiozzotte: Overture MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 4 Intermission MARTUCCI Piano Concerto in B-flat major BUSONI Berceuse lgiaque BOSSI Intermezzi Goldoniani

Note: Mahler conducted most of his concerts without an intermission, a new concert experience for New York audiences. Some of his programs did, however, include an intermission, and when we found a refer130 ence to that fact we included it in our list. B.H

Gustav Mahler in 1910, a typical New Yorker. 131

climaxes of tone that left their thrills. T h e orchestra played excellently. Contrasts were

What the Critics Wrote

1909-1911
It was to a large extent a new orchestra which occupied the platform, there was a conductor who was all but new to local concert room . . . and in the music and its performance there were signs of a new spirit. . . . In the splendid audience there were new faces, and it was noticeable that where they were most numerous the applause was most vociferous and the least discriminating; so that it was made plain to veteran observers of musical affairs that the change had not wholly destroyed the old spirit of wise conservatism and good taste which has distinguished the Philharmonic concerts for two generations. . . . The pieces loosened a storm of enthusiasm, and Mr. Mahler was made to feel that his first battle had ended in victory. Henry E. Krehbiel

numerous and finely wrought, and the volume of sound was satisfying. Of course it is not yet the best orchestra in the world. But then this is only the beginning, and the amount of promise indicated by last night's performance was enough to satisfy even the army of cavilers who sit, listen, and look wise at symphony concerts. Unsigned

T h e general impression derived from the concert last evening, even before the first number was finished, was that the orchestra was already something very different from what it has been for long years; in many respects better. . . . T h e performance o f . . . [Till Eulenspiegel] was an extraordinary one. Never has there been a more clear and brilliant setting forth of its complications. . . . T h e audience at this concert was large, but did not quite fill the hall. It was enthusiastic, and gave Mr. Mahler a very cordial greeting and applause that he waved over to the members of the orchestra. Richard Aldrich

Last night the music was given with a brilliancy and beauty which were scarcely hinted at before. It is not unfamiliar music to local lovers of the orchestra, but it sounded almost new last night, when the band developed a muscularity and homogeneity of tone that were wanting

T h o s e who busy themselves with comparisons doubtless found many points of differences in Mr. Mahler's "readings" of these familiar w o r k s . But let that pass. Suffice it to say that he held the listeners' interest
132

at the earlier meetings, and a joyous elasticity of utterance which was ravishing, The improvement was not confined to this performance, however. Nothing finer than the finale of Brahms's third symphony under Mr. Mahler's direction has been heard in our concert rooms for years. Henry E. Krehbiel 133

throughout, had his men completely under control, and reared huge

T h e Brahms symphony was most sympathetic, yet an individual one. . . . It was pulsating with life and energy in the first and last movements. T h e poetical content of the andante, taken at a pace slightly faster than it often is, and the lyrical character of the third movement were finely presented. T h e performance was notable for its freedom in the matter of tempo modification and of nuance and, likewise, for the richness and changing beauty of its orchestral coloring. Richard Aldrich

T h e audience . . . recognizing in the work [Mahler's Symphony N o . 1] a very radical departure from its traditions, received it with what might be described as courteous applause, much dubious shaking of heads and no small amount of grumblings. Why this should have been the case will better be understood when time and patience permit of a dispassionate discussion of the composition, which, let it be confessed, is not the case now. It belongs to the record of incidents, however, to say that for the first time in a generation at least the society's official program contained neither description not

T h e Till Eulenspiegel enabled the audience to realize what strides the orchestra has made toward technical perfection in its two months under Mr. Mahler's direction, for the Strauss tour de force was on the Philharmonic's first program this season. It was an incomparably better achievement yesterday in every way and was heartily applauded. . . . A large audience brought Mr. Mahler back to the stage many times. Unsigned

analysis of the composition.

Henry E. Krehbiel

The most interesting feature was the performance of the Conductor's Symphony N o . 1, in D major, for the first time in this city. . . . T h e audience received it with approval last night, but without any great demonstration of enthusiasm. This was due mainly to the drawing out of the last movement far beyond its natural conclusion, Ended ten minutes sooner

[Mahler's] performance of Beethoven's fifth symphony was . . . . dramatically colored one with many of the highest lights and shadows Mr. Mahler, like many modern conductors who have followed in Wagner's footsteps, has retouched Beethoven's orchestration. It is a matter that admits of many questionings. Richard Aldrich

in a great climax of triumphal clamor, bizarre but thrilling, the hearers would have been aroused to vigorous demonstrations, but iteration and anti-climax deadened the effect before the end was reached. T h e earlier movements were beautiful, but in the first the sweetness was long drawn out. T h e second waltz movement, dainty and delicate, received the most applause. No analysis of the symphony was given in the programs, but more than one in the audience thought it might be called scenes from the life of a soldier, ending in a blaze of triumph. Unsigned 135

134

It may bring consolation to Gustav Mahler, if he feels at all sensitive about the treatment his Symphony in D major received in N e w York, to consider that the works of his great preceptor, Anton Bruckner have been subjected to attacks far less considerate. It may interest him to know that several of the critical persons who scorn his own talents, as manifested in his first symphonic effort, have not yet learned to appreciate the genius of Liszt, were always blind to the merits of Richard Strauss, have failed to observe the originality and artistic significance of Claude Debussy, have shown, indeed, extraordinary hostility in the introduction of anything new that their minds did not encompass immediately. To be sure such considerations in no way can prove the contention that Mahler's first symphony is a great work. But surely the opinion of men who almost consistently have fought against the admission of new works is somewhat weakened in this case if one surveys the critical past. . . . But surely the Philharmonic Society's present conductor deserves serious critical treatment both as a creator of music and an interpreter. You may dislike his music or you may admire it; you may be in sympathy with his readings of masterpieces or you may take exception to them. Under any circumstances, however you cannot cast the work of Mahler aside unnoticed or laugh it off as a joke. Everywhere, it would seem, Gustav Mahler has aroused controversy, and the enemies he has made are not a few. T h e feeling for or against this remarkable man has never been lukewarm however. His admirers are enthusiastic to the point of fanaticism, his enemies extremely bitter. In Vienna, where the best years of his life were devoted to music, he had to beat the attacks of a hostile band that went far beyond the limits of ordinary decorum, trying 136 to inflame popular feeling by appeals to religious and racial prejudices. Max Smith

Mr. Mahler read [Beethoven's Seventh Symphony] with real eloquence, emphasizing its rhythmical characteristics, but not overemphasizing them, and indulging in dynamic extravagance only in the holding notes of the trumpet in the trio of the scherzo. T h e programs of the society are growing more varied and interesting as the season approaches its end. Henry E. Krehbiel

The

Philharmonic

is just closing its first season

under the

conductorship of Mr. Gustav Mahler. . . . T h e society has given more concerts than ever before, and for the first time in its career it went on tour, visiting Boston and other large cities in the East. . . . Bruckner's "Romantic" symphony, a work that has been heard here several times in the last ten years without making much of an impression, was played with smoothness if with no brilliancy. T h e concert ended with a repetition of Mr. Strauss' Orchestral fantasia, Till Eulenspiegel, of which the Philharmonic has given half a dozen performances this season. It was made the occasion for some of the most brilliant and effective playing offered by the veteran society this season. It roused the audience as nothing else had done, and after it Mr. Mahler was several times recalled to the stage. Unsigned

Last

night's

performance

showed

[Bruckner's

Fourth]

to

be

considerably more worth rehearing than the symphonies of Bruckner that have been played here in recent years. . . . It is, in fact, a work that can be listened to with true pleasure, without weariness to the flesh. 137

Mr. Mahler has reason to be p r o u d of the reception given to his S o m e of this impression no doubt was due to the truly superb interpretation which the symphony received at the hands of Mr. Mahlera performance that proclaimed even more unmistakably than they have been proclaimed before the mastery and authority of the conductor. It showed his insight and entire sympathy with Bruckner's music, of which he is a chief exponent, and, as well, the fine skill of the orchestra, which is steadily T h e Fourth Symphony of Mahler has been heard here before, when gaining lor itself the right to be called a virtuoso organization. T h e freedom, breadth, presented by Walter Damrosch several years ago. . . . In the three and brilliancy of last night's performance, its many-sided eloquence, did much to carry movements preceding the setting of this song the composer sets forth conviction for the music. Richard Aldrich certain All of the music, except the songs, looked familiar on the program, though the symphony [Schumann's Second], which ought to have been the most familiar, inasmuch as it has figured in the musical ideas without permitting the publication of any descriptive program. These movements seem to proceed largely in simple folk dance movements, with themes of primitive structure, with occasional touches of not very modern modernity, and few rather obtrusive outbursts, which are not the outcome of any logically developed climax. What, in all sincerity, can be said of this symphony? What can be said of musical qualities where none can be detected, and why should one go into detail concerning the orchestral mask, when there is nothing behind it? With the most Nearly all of the symphonies, symphonic poems, and overtures which figure in the sincere search it seems impossible to find anything in his symphony, except a series of society's programs nowadays should be accepted as the works of the composers plus unrelated orchestral effects, fairly clever as far as knowledge of the instruments goes, but emendations, alterations, and additions made by Mr. Mahler. Henry E. Kriehbiel wholly superficial, and which have nothing whatsoever to offer the music-hungry spirit. . . . T h e first notes of Ein Heldenleben, following the symphony, fell like drops of water There were a few rearrangements of M i . Mahler's own devising in the orchestration; but from that nobody is safe, especially a composer who has to bear a reputation for unskillfulness in scoring. T h e performance of the symphony was truly impressive. 138 Richard Aldrich upon the thirsting desert. Arthur Farwell fourth symphony. After the first movement he was called out four times, and similar demonstrations followed after the other

divisions.

Henry T. Finck

Philharmonic's schemes for nearly fifty-seven years, disclosed some unwonted features due to the revision which it has received at the hands of Mr. Mahler.

139

Mahler's Marked Scores in the New York Philharmonic Archives

by PAUL B A N K S

he rich collections of the N e w York Philharmonic Orchestra Library and contain many treasures, including fascinating but little-known

Archives

documentation of one of the most interesting periods of Mahler's career: his two years (1909-11) as the artistic head of the Orchestra. T h i s was the first

time in his career when he was not working regularly in any opera house (a breed of musical institution he loved and loathed), had minimal administrative duties, and was responsible for an extended season of orchestral concerts. Having traveled thousands of miles from Vienna, the city where he had received his musical education and formed his creative and re-creative personality, he had moved out of an extraordinarily intense but self-regarding

In 1989, the British musicologist Paul Banks visited the New York Philharmonic Archives and Orchestra Library in connection with his research on the printed sources of Mahler's compositions. He returned to New York in March 1998 for the purpose of examining scores in the Philharmonic Archives that Gustav Mahler might have used in his performances with the Orchestra. To prepare for his visit, Barbara Haws and Erik Ryding, equipped with a comprehensive list of the works Mahler conducted with the New York Philharmonic, combed through numerous early scores in the Orchestra Library. They consulted Library records and catalogues from the turn of the century, evaluated early editions to determine their dates, and returned with 41 marked scores and several sets of marked parts for Paul Banks to examine. Hunting for traces of Mahler's hand, Banks scrutinized the scores page by page for three days, being joined on one afternoon by the American Mahler 140 scholar Edward Reilly. The following essay reflects their findings.

cultural life into N e w York's new, vibrant, and refreshing climate. T h e impact on Mahler's concert repertoire was not a total transformation, but was striking nevertheless. Beethoven and Wagner had always been the foundation on which his concert programming was built, with the addition of a limited number of works by the major figures of mid-19th-century European music. Tchaikovsky, Smetana, and Dvok represented Eastern European music, but the majority of the composers worked within the Austro-German tradition. Moreover, until his appointment to the N e w York Philharmonic, Mahler's concert repertoire, like his opera repertoire during his 10 years as Director of the Vienna C o u r t Opera, was unremarkable for its inclusion of new works. From the autumn of 1909 this began to change. T h e list of composers Mahler now added to his repertoire showed how m u c h wider he was casting his net, including as it did music from France (Chabrier, Debussy, D u k a s , Massenet, Saint-Sans), England (Elgar), Ireland (Stanford), Italy (Bossi, Busoni, Cherubini, Sinigaglia), R o m a n i a (Enesco), Russia (Rachmaninoff, 141

Above: Opening m e a s u r e s of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2, marked by Mahler for his arrangement commonly known as the Bach-Mahler Suite for Orchestra.

Left: A cornucopia of s c o r e s and parts marked by Mahler: (clockwise from upper left corner) Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, Schumann's "Manfred" Overture, Liszt's Mazeppa, and Dvok's Scherzo Capriccioso. 143

Rimsky-Korsakov), and U S A (Chadwick, Hadley, Loeffler, MacDowell). Furthermore, his repertoire was expanding in its historical range, with more 18th-century music and a far greater interest in contemporary music. This much of the story can be gleaned from the programs in the Philharmonic's Archives, but turning to the documents from the Orchestra Library leads to new insights. A working orchestral library is quite unlike a reference library or archive: Its contents are not protected at every turn from the depredations of everyday life, held in as unchanging a form as possible. T h e main task of an orchestral library is to supply the scores and parts used and abused by the conductor and players in rehearsals and performances. For standard repertoire works, conductors often buy and travel with their own scores (and sometimes sets of parts), but this is not necessarily the case for new or unusual works, for which conductors would usually expect to use copies owned or hired by the orchestra's library, marking them as necessary. Occasionally a conductor's personal score may inadvertently become part of an orchestra's library, or (perhaps even more commonly) the orchestra's own scores find their way into conductor's collections. T h e orchestral parts are subjected to a variety of wear and tear and have to be cleaned up and repaired periodically, until the ravages of time take their toll, remedial treatment becomes uneconomic, and the well-loved pages ate retired, usually to the archives. Battered, often literally falling apart (the paper used from about 1890 to 1950 is often of very poor quality), the scores and parts can contain annotations by several generations of conductors and orchestral musicians: trying to discern who wrote what can be like making sense of geological strata. But the effort can be worthwhile: T h e various notes, scribbles, and doodles can offer us insights into many aspects of music-making 144 decades ago.

T h e practice of marking scores and parts is relatively recent. It was almost unknown before the mid-19th century, reflecting, perhaps, both a respect for valuable and rare copies, and the nature of both rehearsal and performance. But by the early 20th century, the conductor and his players would be armed with pencils and crayons in a variety of colors, and would be ready to use them. Greater consistency of ensemble and technique was expected of orchestras, and after Wagner and Hans von Blow conductors were viewed increasingly as more than mere leaders of the band but as interpretative artists in their own right. Such developments encouraged more intense rehearsal, but the resulting annotations are often very prosaic in nature: M a n y simply highlight instructions already in the score or part, such as changes of key signature, the need to change instruments (particularly in wind parts), or a change of tempo; others deal with particular technical problems, notably the lingering and bowing of string parts. (As both can be changed at the whim of either the conductor or the concertmaster, and require practice by the players, the string parts are usually much more heavily marked than those for wind, brass, and percussion, and have to be replaced more frequently.) N o t all the markings are directly concerned with the performance: Players can use parts for making sketches (the conductor is a c o m m o n subject), jotting down reminders, sending messages to colleagues, noting names and addresses, and recording comments on the piece. One recurring theme in parts for Mahler's symphonies (though it's not that c o m m o n in the New York Philharmonic sets) is their sheer length, the end of the First provoking an apparently impatient (or perhaps just exhausted) "Amen" from a N e w York double bassist. The need to catch the last tram to Mdling or train to Brooklyn is a perennial concern. But some of these seemingly innocuous notes are useful to us. Occasionally players date their parts 145

Above: A page from the Orchestra Library catalogue noting the final demise of the Philharmonic's Bruckner Fourth parts.

Right: A fragile page from the Finale of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 ("Romantic") shows 146 revisions in Mahler's hand.

(sometimes with the conductor's name)thus offering the possibility that we might be able to associate some or all of the musical annotations to a particular performanceand add the timing of the performance. So we know that Josef Stransky's performance of Mahler's First on December 3 1 , 1920, lasted 54 1/2 minutes and that Mahler's performances of Schumann's Second and Brahms's Third Symphonies lasted 37 and 36 minutes, respectively. When individual movements are timed, we can form a better (though never a very precise) sense of the tempi adopted. Of course what remains unrecorded is Mahler's renowned sense of tempo modificationrubatothat is so essential in breathing life and chatacter into a performance. Interesting though the orchestral parts are, the scores used by Mahler are even more fascinatingfor what they do and don't show. S o m e annotations were neatly entered probably while he was studying the work, while others were hurriedly scrawled on the page, presumably during rehearsal. T h e most revealing are those which reflect Mahler's creative engagement with a work. From this point of view the full score of his First Symphony is one of the most important. Bearing Mahler's own s t a m p ("Gustav Mahler / Wien"), it is a first edition, published by Weinberger in 1 8 9 9 , in which most of the composer's later revisions have been entered, many in his hand. Apart from the addition of exposition repeats in both the first and second movements (first introduced in the 1906 edition of the study score), the overwhelming majority of the alterations concern refinements in the orchestration of the work. Mahler conducted the work for the last time on December 16 and 17, 1 9 0 9 , with the Philharmonic, and clearly enjoyed returning to his first symphonic essay"I myself was pretty pleased with that youthful effort!" he wrote to Bruno Walter N o t all the N e w York "superiors" (Mahler's term for critics) were impressed the
148

York Times. Crucially, though, the performances gave the composer an opportunity to evaluate his latest revisions, and that experience was reflected in the second edition of the full score, published in N o v e m b e r 1 9 1 0 . T h e N e w York score is therefore an important document, but it also epitomizes the problems presented by so many scores in orchestral libraries: it has been used by at least three generations of conductors (represented by Mahler, Bruno Walter, and Bernstein), and assigning authorship to the various annotators is an intriguing and, in s o m e cases, insoluble problem. As is well known, Mahler was also willing to rework the music of other composers, and one of the best (or most infamous) examples is Bruckner's Fourth Symphony (heard at Carnegie Hall on Match 3 0 , 1910). As we can see from the fragile copy of Mahler's conducting score in the Archivea late issue of the first edition published by A. J. G u t m a n in 1889his approach was radically interventionist. ( O n e of the Orchestra's old catalogues [see page 146] shows that Mahler took the orchestral parts back to Europe from whence they never returned; the set is now in the Wiener Stadtbibliothek.) Throughout the Symphony Mahler tinkers with scoring, dynamics, and articulation, striving constantly for textural clarity. But in the last three movements he went much further, making substantial cuts, some of which required adjustments to the music in order to create smooth links between sections. In the Andante quasi allegretto, a typical, five-part A B A ' B ' A " structure, Mahler cut the third and fourth sections, creating a simple ternary design. In the Scherzo he reshapes the overall dynamic contours of the movement (giving a quiet, poetic ending to the first appearance of the main section) and radically abbreviates the return of the Scherzo. Unsurprisingly, though, it is the Finale that is most radically altered. Throughout his symphonic career Bruckner worked to perfect a novel type of concluding movement, one that few of his young supporters 149

instrumentation is one of the least satisfactory elements of the work" according to The New

Above: Philharmonic librarian, Henry G. Boewig, indicated the changes made by Mahler on this score of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. Beneath Mr. Boewig's words a p p e a r s Arturo Toscanini's signed reference to the changes as being "unworthy of such a musician." Someone anonymously later added "nomina stultorum sunt ubique locorum," which, translated from the Latin, means: "the words of fools appear everywhere."

Right: Opening of the Finale to Beethoven's Seventh, with Mahler's doublings in red ink.

fully understood. Mahler's approach is to shorten both the exposition and recapitulation by removing the third group of themes (which are thus never heard in his version), to eliminate most of the development, and to omit the recapitulation of the first subject, and to pass straight from the return of the second subject group to the coda. In fact there are precedents for some of these alterations in the revisions Bruckner m a d e to the Finale of his Third Symphony in 1889 (changes which, paradoxically, Mahler tried to persuade the old man to abandon), and the new concertmaster of the Philharmonic, Theodore Spiering, welcomed the result: "Through a whole series of very skillfully worked-out cuts he relieved the work of its jerky, periodic nature; and he achieved a logical unity which brought out the work's many beauties to an unimaginable degree." Moreover Mahler's truncation of Bruckner's Fourth also had the merit of brevity in a well-filled concert that also included an overture by Pfitzner, two preludes from Strauss's opera Guntram and his symphonic poem Till Eulenspiegel. Mahler's approach to Bruckner had aroused some opposition in Vienna, but this was nothing compared with the hostility he faced for his readings and retouchings of Beethoven. He was willing to rescore and alter dynamics whenever he felt such changes addressed compromises forced on the composer by the technical limitations of the instruments at his disposal or the problems created by modern performing conditions (much larger halls and correspondingly bigger orchestras). Yet as Mahler made clear in a manifesto published in 1900, his aim was to address such issues without fundamentally altering Beethoven's sound world, and he legitimately traced his approach back to that of Wagner. Mahler's retouchings didn't always remain within such modest boundsthe use of stopped horns in the Scherzo of the Fifth Symphony being a case in pointbut many are discreet and helpful solutions 152 to persistent problems. As it happens, the score of the Seventh Symphony in the Archives

(which carries Toscanini's scornful annotation; see page 150) has relatively little in Mahler's own hand, and is not the most radically retouched of his scores. T h e other irony of Toscanini's response is that he too was willing to depart from Beethoven's text, often following the practical and relatively uncontroversial approach of Weingartner, but

sometimes adopting (perhaps unwittingly) readings also employed by Mahler. What is striking about Mahler's annotations is that they are primarily concerned with the music, not with the problems of conducting it. In this respect his scores look quite different from, say, those of his friend and great admirer, Willem Mengelberg, with their copious reminders and aide-mmoires. In part this difference may be traced back to their difference in age. When Mahler was studying at the Vienna Conservatory in the m i d - 1 8 7 0 s , there was no course in conducting on offer: T h e only opportunity to stand before the student orchestra seems to have been given to those (like Mahler) on the composition course, but it is very unlikely that they were given any systematic training. Mahler probably had to learn the craft by watching others, and by trial and error in a series of humble appointments at the start of his career. If Mahler ever worried about the technique of conducting (and the problems some players had with his beat suggest it did not keep him awake at night), it finds no reflection in his scores, which record only his concern for the musical result he was seeking. This helps to explain the baldness of a number of the scores used by Mahler in New York, but there is another factor. He was not over-impressed by the New York Philharmonic at the start of his first season as its head and admitted to Bruno Walter, "I find it very dispiriting to have to start all over again as a conductor. T h e only pleasure I get from it all is rehearsing a work I haven't done before." Because of the very tight concert schedule, Mahler cannot have had 153

much opportunity to tinker with the works he added to his repertoire, and their scores remain relatively untouched except for cuts in works he found too prolix (such as Stanford's Irish Symphony, heard on February 14 and 17, 1 9 1 1 , and Enesco's First Suite, O p . 9, heard on January 3, 6, and 8, 1911) and very limited adjustments to scoring (as in Loeffler's La Villanelle du Diable, also heard on February 14 and 17, 1911). At his very last concert, on February 2 1 , 1911, Mahler conducted one of the most important premieres of his career, Busoni's exquisite Berceuse lgiaque. It is all but certain that the New York Philharmonic's score and parts of the work are those used by Mahler: If so, they reveal that Mahler altered nothing in that delicate masterpiece. Alas, The New York Times thought the work "gruesome," and even Busoni, a great admirer of Mahler, admitted that the work didn't quite suit Mahler's personality. What he didn't know was that his colleague was already terminally ill, and had conducted his swan song. We can never really know what gave Mahler's conducting its greatness. In the absence of recordings we have to rely on the piano rolls he made in 1 9 0 5 , reviews, and memories of those who worked with him. He left no "school," and the diversity of approach to his music shown by his friends and close associates such as Bruno Walter, O t t o Klemperer, Oskar Fried, and Willem Mengelberg offered no coherent performing tradition for his output. So, mute though they are, the scores and parts Mahler used in N e w York speak to us particularly eloquently, as tangible traces of a vanished art.

Paul Banks taught at Goldsmith's College, London, before becoming Librarian at the BrittenPears Library in Aldeburgh; he has recently taken up a new appointment as Research Mahler's own score of his Symphony No. 1, with new articulation added by the composer in red and with the revised tempo indication added by Bruno Walter in blue. 155

Development Fellow at the Royal College of Music, London. His research interests include Berlioz, 154 Mahler, Busoni, and Benjamin Britten.

Catalogue of Mahler's Marked Scores and Parts in the Orchestra Library and Archives
Johann Sebastian Bach Overture for Orchestra, No. 2 in B minor Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, no date (Library No. 10a) Ludwig van Beethoven Overture ("Namensfeier") Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, no date (Library No. 39) Symphony No. 7 in A major Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, Series No. 1, no date (Library No. 11) Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major ("Romantic") New York: G. Schirmer, 1890 (Library No. 135) George Whitefield Chadwick Melpomene, Dramatic Overture Boston & Leipzig: Arthur P. Schmidt, 1891 (Library No. 160)* Antonin Dvok Scherzo Capriccioso Berlin: Bote & Bock, no date (Library No. 244) Georges Enesco Suite for Orchestra, No. 1 in C major Paris: Enoch & Co., no date (Library No. 260+) Franz Liszt Mazeppa Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, no date (Library No. 406) Tasso: Lamento e Trionfo Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, no date (Library No. 405)* Charles Martin Loeffler La Villanelle du Diable New York: G. Schirmer, 1905 (Library No. 433) * Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major Vienna: Josef Weinberger, [1899] (Library No. 440) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Idomeneo: Ballet Music Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, Series V, no date (Library No. 488 1/2)

Hans Pftzner Overture to Kleist's Kthchen von Heilbronn Berlin: Ries & Erler, 1905 (Library No. 489) Franz Schubert Symphony No. 7 [now No. 9] in C major Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, Series 1, no date (Library No. 582) Symphony [No. 8] in B minor ("Unfinished") Vienna: C. A. Spina, 1867 (Library No. 583) Robert Schumann "Manfred" Overture Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, no date (Library No. 596; full score and several parts marked by Mahler) Symphony No. 2 in C major, revised by Alfred Drffel Leipzig: C. F. Peters, no date (Library No. 591a)

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Suite No. 1 in D minor Moscow: P. Jurgenson, no date (Library No. 728)* Symphony No. 5 in E minor Hamburg: D. Rahter, no date (Library No. 719)* Symphony No. 6 in B minor ("Pathtique") Leipzig: Robert Forbcrg, 1897 (Library No. 720)* Richard Wagner A "Faust" Overture Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hrtel, [c. 1857] (Library No. 750) Kaiser-Marsch Leipzig: C. F. Peters, no date (Library No. 784)* Carl Maria von Weber Oberon: Overture Mainz: B. Schott's Shne, no date (Library No. 802)

This is not a comprehensive catalogue of scores and parts; this is the result of our intensive investigation at this time. As the Orchestra Library and Archives contain more than 10,000 scores and parts, there is, obviously, more research to be done. In addition to continuing the work on Mahler, there is no comprehensive survey identifying the markings of Mengelberg, Walter, or Mitropoulos, to name a few. B.H. *Markings minimal or doubtful. 157

156

Mahler After Mahler

War and Peace: The Mahler Version

b y ALAN RICH

I
160

t hit me a few weeks ago, as the "Resurrection" Symphony stormed its way through the vastness of the Hollywood Bowlmusic and space seemingly fashioned out of a single grandiose impulsethat a m o n g the countless candidates for the tide of Most Influential Musical Eminence of the Century, the name of Gustav Mahler deserves to

place high on the roster. Sure, the listmakers can offer impressive alternatives: Igor and Elvis, Maria or Lenny. T h e y can also argue that the Mahler Second, which set off these thoughts,

was actually composed in 1894. Never mind; this was the work (alongside, depending how you count, its eight, nine, or nine-and-a-half companions) that cast an inescapable shadow across the music-making and the musical thinking of this century. T h e struggles of Mahler the composer (as distinguished from the far-less-challengeable triumphs of Mahler the

Mahler and Willem Mengelberg, with friends, on an outing in Zuidersee, 1906

conductor)from hostile rejection to grudging acceptance to triumphant hysteriais the central saga of our time, the shaping force that altered for all time the nature of music. "My time will yet come," he had once proclaimed, a battle cry enshrined on the Mahler Society's Medal of Honor; these discs affirm the truth in his prophecy. Some of us are old enough to remember, however, when these words rang hollow. Like many other life's pleasures, Mahler's music was being rationed in wartime Boston during my first concertgoing days: only the first movement of the Third Symphony at one concert; only the last two movements of the Fourth at another. Both truncated events were led by the Boston Symphony's splendid assistant conductor and concertmaster, Richard Burgin; it would have been less likely for Serge Koussevitzky, with his strong Russian-French identification, to play an active role in the Mahlerian struggles. (Yet it was Koussevitzky who, in 1931, had given the first American performance of the Mahler Ninth drastically cut. Try as I might, I cannot fantasize what that performance must have sounded like.) By the war's end I had moved to New York, where the Mahler presence at the Philharmonic was being burnished by the advocacy of Artur Rodzinski, Bruno Walter, and Dimitri Mitropoulos against the determined opposition of much of the musical press. Just before Christmas 1945 I heard Bruno Walter's performance of the Ninth from a seat in the Carnegie Hall stratosphere; what I remember most from that concert however, is that it also included a Beethoven piano concerto (the Third, with Rudolf Firkusny) and, therefore, must have run until nearly midnight. Two years later, also in December, I heard Mitropoulos giving the American premiere (!) of the Sixth, but my memories there are mostly of the rudeness of large numbers of clearly offended listeners pushing their way back 162 up the aisles; their mood was to be echoed in the New York Times's "weak, banal and

repetitious" the next morning. Those few monthsfall into winter, 1947-48were an interesting time of Mahler immersion in and around New York. Leonard Bernstein bedazzled his way onto the Mahlerian stage: not at Carnegie with the Philharmonic, but a mere two blocks away at the New York City Center with his New York City Symphony in a ragtag but lively performance of the Second Symphony. It was Bernstein's first public Mahler, although as Artur Rodzinski's assistant at the Philharmonic he had helped prepare that same work in l943 (two weeks after his famous broadcast "debut") and actually conducted the offstage brass and percussion in the finale. Shortly after the City Symphony performance, Bernstein brought his Mahler Second to the Boston Symphony, and the rest, as they say, is history. My own Mahler epiphany came that January: an experience which, over 50 years plus a few months, I have always been able to rerun on my internal Victrola (and now can reconfirm, thanks to these discs): Das Lied von der Erde, with Walter conducting and as soloists the Wagnerian tenor Set Svanholm andmost miraculous of allBritain's Kathleen Ferrier in her American debut. We already knew that voice of incredible royalpurple splendor, that instinctive sense of phrase that seemingly made every line a message to you and you alone. A friend one year had bought up dozens of copies of her disc of Schubert lieder and sent them out as Christmas cards. By January 1948 I was working for the late Dario Soria in his imported record business; his wife, Dorle Jarmel, was the Philharmonic's publicist, and she got me into the concert and also to Ferrier's press conference. "You don't have to call me a mezzo-soprano," said this ravishing, slender woman with the melting eyes. "I'm a contralto, and I'm not ashamed to say it." I sit here 163

again, the conductor would be the redoutable Stokowski.) composing these words, and the echo of Ferrier's "Ewig . . . ewig" seems to resound in the shadows behind me as I write. T h e "famine" broke at decades end. Stransky himself rounded off the decade with a performance of the First Symphony on N e w Year's Eve, 1 9 2 0 - 2 1 , but the bigger bang would occur the next season with the arrival at the Philharmonic of Willem Mengelbergwho had

ustav Mahler returned to Vienna in February 1911 and died three months later; he had been unable to conduct his last scheduled concerts with the New

actually first guest-led the Philharmonic in 1905 and been praised then by Aldrich for his "spirit of youth." Mengelberg and Mahler had first met in T h e Netherlands in 1902; ironicallyconsidering Mengelberg's ultimate disgrace in his native land for his support of the Nazi occupiers during World War IIthey immediately found common cause. In nowhere more than Amsterdam, from then on until 1940, was Mahler's music so often performed; in M a y 1920, Mengelberg led a Mahler festival including all nine symphonies. (A surviving electrical recording from 1926 of the Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony, the strings glistening and intense, with a layer of that technique of sliding between notes portamentoso loved at the time, provides some inkling of what those performances must have been like.) New York heard its first Das Lied von der Erde in early February 1922, performed by the Friends of Music under Artur Bodanzky toas Richard Aldrich noteda progressively dwindling audience. T h e heat of battle increased later that month, however, as Mengelberg arrived with an impressive calling-card. On February 28, 1922, he confronted N e w York with its first hearing of the Mahler Third, longest of them all. ( O n internal evidence, suggested the English writer Sir Donald Tovey, it was composed during a holiday at Lanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.) Whatever intellectual

York Philharmonic and gave it over to his concertmaster, Theodore Spiering.

Josef Stransky, Mahler's successor at the Philharmonic, led the Funeral March

from the Fifth Symphony as a memorial in November 1 9 1 1 ; over the ensuing decade, New

York's local forces produced but one Mahler symphonythe Fourth, also led by Stransky. Despite this momentary "famine," however, Mahler's long-promised "time" came ever closer. In 1913, the eminent Austrian musicologist Guido Adler surveyed the Mahler realm and found it flourishing: There had been 2 6 0 performances of the nine symphonies worldwide so far, 80 conducted by Mahler and the rest by a growing circle of ardent advocates. T h e slim pickings in New York were augmented, furthermore, when Leopold Stokowski, who in March 1916 had given the Eighth Symphony its first American hearing with his Philadelphia Orchestra and attendant vocal resources, then brought the whole gargantuan shebangliterally 1,000 strongnorth to the Metropolitan Opera House. T h e reception followed predictable pathways: ecstasy from the overflow crowd, modified rapture verging upon disdain from the press. "His themes, generally forcible and direct in their line," wrote the Times's Richard Aldrich, "are often submitted to the thumbscrew and the rack of mordantly dissonant harmonies, [and] are broken and tortured relentlessly." (It would be another 34 years before the New York Philharmonic itself got around to the Eighth; once 164

luggage Mengelberg carried with him to New York, critical acceptance of his taste for Mahler was not included. "Not content with introducing this dreary and unprofitable work to a 165

public that never had taken Mahler to heart as a composer," railed Musical America's Oscar Thompson, " . . Willem Mengelberg, avowedly a Mahler convert and apostle, preached it with all the eloquence of a virtuoso conductors art. . . ." And Deems Taylor, critic, composerand, in years to come, as Philharmonic radio host, obliged to speak an occasional kind word or two on Mahler's behalfechoed. "When a man fixes you with a stern, glittering eye," he wrote in the New York World, "and tells you that s o m e Mahler work you never heard is one of the most sublime products of the human mind, you cannot very well refute him. If you reply, 'I dont believe it,' he only says, why?' And if, cornered, you say 'because I've heard some of his other things,' he merely remarks triumphantly, 'but you should hear this one!'" Mengelberg's Mahler did not charm the press, but his "stern, glittering eye" worked wonders with the audience; he became phenomenally popular as his position at the Philharmonic advanced from guest to Co-conductor (with Toscanini)all the time maintaining his stewardship over the Mahler shrine he had created back home in Amsterdam. In his time at the Philharmonicwhich included that orchestras merger in 1928 with its longtime rival the New York SymphonyMengelberg led the Philharmonic in performances of Mahler's Second Symphony (twice), Third (American premiere), Fifth (twice), Seventh (New York premiere) and Das Lied von der Erde (twice). Willem van Hoogstraten, Mengelberg's compatriot and assistant, took the First Symphony to the summertime audiences at Manhattan's Lewisohn Stadium. Meanwhile that other notable

Album cover for the world-premiere recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 5, by the New 166 York Philharmonic under Bruno Walter in 1947.

Mahler apostle (and one-time disciple), Bruno Walter, made his American debut with the New York Symphony in 1923, and conducted Mahler's First with that orchestra in 1924. Bruno Walter's appearance on the local Mahlerian battlefield coincided with another major arrival, that of the formidable Olin Downes to replace Richard Aldrich as chief critic at The New York Times. Downes arrived already honorably scarred, after 18 years of fighting (and losing) the good fight to save the world from Mahler at his former battle station at the Boston Post. N o w Bruno Walter received the first salvo. "It is a pity that creative genius in music does not always go hand in hand with noble aspiration," began Downes's inaugural fulmination, in the Times of February 2 9 , 1924. "This was borne upon the hearer of Mahler's First Symphony, performed very sympathetically by Bruno Walter and the N e w York Symphony. . . . Again and again the composer hauls at his bootstraps, and remains on the ground." The line was drawn, the pattern set: on one side, Gustav Mahler and his dedicated interpreters, cheered on by large and clearly partisan audiences; on the other, the New York press, generated by Olin Downes, implacable andsadder yetpredictable. D u e credit was given. Nary a vitriol-drenched column failed to notice the excellence of the orchestral execution, the dedication of the conductor, the ecstasy of the clearly misguided crowd that remained to the end, the wisdom of those who chose to leave early. A litany rings through these writings from the 1920s, not only from Downes and his newspaper colleagues, but also from such progressive-minded writers as Paul Rosenfeld of Dial and The New Republic. Mahler's music lives on through Mengelberg's enormous personal appeal; once Mengelberg goes, the musicin Downes's words"will surely 168 perish." Mengelberg departed in 1930, leaving the Philharmonic in sole possession of

Toscanini, whose antipathy toward Mahler and his music is easily traceable to their days of uneasy tandem at the Metropolitan Opera in 1908. But if Toscanini never conducted a note of Mahler in his lifetime, he did not seal off the entryway to others. Bruno Walter returned to lead the first two symphonies in 1933, and Das Lied von der Erde a year later. Otto Klemperer, like Walter a refugee from the rising ride of Nazism, led a performance of the Second in 1935; he had also led that work and several other Mahler symphonies during his tenure (1933-39) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. "It shook the audience," Downes reported, "and resulted in a prolonged demonstration . . . [despite] the commonness of the themes, the prolixity. . . ." John Barbirolli succeeded Toscanini at the Philharmonic in 1937; although he would enthusiastically plead the cause in later years, the extent of his service to Mahler in New York during his tenure as Music Director consisted of the brief Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony, the music nobody doesn't lovenobody, that is, except Downes, who began by mis-identifying the music as belonging to the Second Symphony. "The performance was the best of the evening," huffed the predictable Olin, "but it could not make a thing of the music which it is not. Long movement or short, we seek still for the proof that Gustav Mahler was the man his adherents make him out to be." (You must know, by the way, that the use of the editorial "we" in Downes's case always implied a partnership between him and the Almighty, with no clear indication as to which was which.) Meanwhile, the cause was being argued in other cities as well. Boston's Serge Koussevitzky had given the Ninth its belated American premiere in 1931 and repeated the work several times in the ensuing decade. Otto Klemperer had established a respectable Mahler outpost in Los Angeles. In Minneapolis, Eugene Ormandy's 1935 performance of 169

and Dimitri Mitropoulos as frequent guestsand, from 1943, with the incandescent the Second was recorded by RCA-Victor and released on eleven 78-rpm shellac records. That behemoth of an album, along with Bruno Walter's Vienna performances of Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth (recorded practically on the eve of Hitler's annexation of Austria), formed practically the sole sustenance of Mahlerite record collectors through the war years, joined soon afterwards by another Minneapolis blockbuster, Mitropoulos's version of the First. Dimitri Leonard Bernstein standing by in the wings. O n e tide had not turned, however. "There is a degree of ostentation," wrote Olin Downes of Walter's 1945 Ninth, "which would be funny if it were not so v u l g a r . . . . T h e orchestration is swollen to ten times the values of the ideas." Now, however, a counterbalancing force was at hand. At the Herald Tribune there was Virgil Thomson, French-trained and French-leaning but an eloquent Mahlerite even so. 'Beautifully made and beautifully thought," was Thomson's take on the Ninth (in a 1941 performance by Koussevitzky and the Boston), ". . . stylistically more noble than anything

A
170

n international score sheet of Mahler performances shows an interesting configuration. Berlin checks in first, with some of the Knaben Wunderhorn songs in 1893 and the first movement of the Second Symphony (performed separately as Totenfeier) a year later. Vienna hears the complete Second in 1899,

[ Richard] Strauss, with all his barnstorming brilliance, ever achieved." Even at this late date, there were holes in the Mahler repertory. T h e problematic Sixth Symphony had to wait until 1947 for its American premiere (conducted by Mitropoulos on December 11, with the predictable response). A year later Mitropoulos revived the Seventh, unheard in New York since 1923; this drew a vituperation from Downes unique even by his standards. "There is little that this writer cares to say on the subject of Mahler's symphony," wrote America's most influential tastemaker. "He does not like it at all. . . . It is to our mind bad art, bad esthetic, bad, presumptious and blatantly vulgar music. . . . After three-quarters of an hour of the worst and most pretentious of the Mahler symphonies we found we could not take it and left the hall." From Los Angeles Arnold Schoenberg, infuriated at Downes's out-of-hand dismissal of the workas he had been with Downes's equally vitriolic put-down of his own Five Pieces for Orchestraresponded with a letter of protest full of Mahlerian resonance; Downes replied, allowing that the music he liked was to him a religion and, thus, entitled him to be intolerant of other religions. T h e correspondence, rather pathetic reading at this late date, filled quite a lot of newsprint in a November and December of 50 years ago. But Downes had lost the battle, and he probably knew it. Curious indeed are his words 171

Mengelberg's Amsterdam explodes onto the scene in 1903. New York hears the Fourth in 1904, thanks to Walter Damrosch and his New York Symphony. Chicago hears the Fifth in 1907. Gradually the chart fills in; by 1933 the Mahlerian realm bristles with activity. Adolf Hitler takes command, and the dropouts begin. Berlin goes silent in 1933, after what amounted to a virtual orgy of Mahler mania; Vienna, in 1938. Hitler's troops invade The Netherlands in 1940; even Mengelberg cannot keep Mahler's music alive. New York becomes Mahler's capital-in-exile, with some degree of activity in Boston and Chicago as well. Bruno Walter had fled his native Vienna under the Nazi shadow, settling first in France and eventually in the United States. He had last conducted Das Lied von der Erde with the Philharmonic in 1934; he returned with the same work in January 1 9 4 1 . Mahler's tide had now definitively turned at the Philharmonic, with Artur Rodzinski in charge, with Walter

about the gargantuan Eighth, which Leopold Stokowski, the Philharmonic, and the requisite close-to-a-thousand vocal aggregation returned to New York in April 1950, after 34 years away. Stokowski prefaced the 80-minute Mahler work with one of the brief "Sacred Symphonies" for chorus and brass by the Baroque master Giovanni Gabrieli. Downes, obviously taken by the work, gave it five of the seven paragraphs of his review; the two Mahler paragraphs, furthermore, contained only two adjectives: "sweeping" and "immense." "Gabrieli said it all," said Olin Downes. By 1950, the concert halls of Berlin and Vienna again resounded to Mahler's music; a new generation of conductors, including Willem van Otterloo and Eduard van Beinum, had restored Amsterdam as a Mahler shrine. The long-playing record had begun the spread of his music worldwide. In New York, Bruno Walter and Dimitri Mitropoulos stoked the fires; in 1959, even Sir John Barbirolli, returning as guest conductor, performed the First. On New Years Eve, 1959, the Philharmonic honored the centennial of Mahler's birth by launching its first (but not its last) Mahler Festival, spread across seven successive weekends, with Dimitri Mitropoulos and Leonard Bernstein on the podium, culminating in a triumphant Bernsteinled Second Symphony that established that young conductors star permanently in the firmament. (Bruno Walter closed the Festival in April with Das Lied.) The presseven The New York Times-, where Olin Downes's successor was the astute and no less perceptive Howard Taubmaninvoked such non-Downesian adjectives as "irresistible" and "extraordinary." Promotional postcard for the Amsterdam Mahler Festival in May 1920, when Mengelberg led the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the world's first comprehensive Mahler cycle. From 1922 to 1930, Mengelberg was a Principal Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. 173

Four generations of conductors had preached Mahler's gospel from the stage of Carnegie Hall (with an occasional side trip to the Metropolitan Opera House and, in the near future, to Lincoln Center). Mahler himself had laid the foundation; Mengelberg and then Waller had built on it; later, so had Rodzinski and the mystical Mitropoulos. Leonard Bernstein was still something of an unknown when he conducted his first Mahler in 1947; audiences came, however, because his Mahlerian predecessors had already revealed the greatness in this music. His accomplishment was to spread that revelation, to expand exponentially, in person and through the media, the realm in which the music of Mahler thundered forth in its full redemptive, uplifting, depressing, exasperating power. His successorsPierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, currently Kurt Masursealed the victory. Now the name of Mahler on a program stands as a promise of musical glory, not a summons to man the battlements. His time has come.

Alan Rich is music critic for LA Weekly and was formerly chief critic at the New York Herald Tribune and N e w York magazine. His books include Music, Mirror of the Arts, T h e Lincoln Center Story, Careers and Opportunities in Music, and the four-volume Play-by-Play series (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky). He has taught at the New School for Social Research, California Institute of the Arts, and UCLA.

Leonard Bernstein and Dimitri Mitropoulos, who shared the bulk of the Philharmonic's 1960 174 Mahler Festival performances, pictured circa 1958

1915-16

T h e Saint Cecilia C l u b T h e Boys' C h o i r o f Father Finn's Paulist Choristers

" D e r Schildwache Nachtlied" "Rheinlegendchen" Nov. 5, 6, 1 9 2 5 Carnegie Hall Walter D a m r o s c h Sigrid O n e g i n , contralto

Mahler as Composer:
The New York Philharmonic Performances
1904-05
*Symphony No. 4 N o v . 6, 1 9 0 4 (United States premiere) Carnegie Hall Walter D a m r o s c h Etta de M o n t j a u , s o p r a n o Kindertotenlieder Symphony No. 4 J a n . 17, 2 0 , 1911 Carnegie Hall

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Feb. 6, 1 9 1 6 Aeolian Hall Walter D a m r o s c h Marcia Van Dresser, s o p r a n o Symphony N o . 4 Feb. 2 4 , 2 5 , 1 9 1 6 Carnegie Hall

1922-23
Symphony No. 7 Mar. 8, 9, 1 9 2 3 Carnegie Hall Willem M e n g e l b e r g

Symphony No. 2 Nov. 2 5 , 2 7 , 1 9 2 5 Carnegie Hall Willem Mengelberg

1924-25
* Symphony No. 1 Nov. 2 8 , 2 9 , 1 9 2 4 Carnegie Hall

Ruth Rodgers, soprano M a r t h a Offers, contralto C h o r u s o f the Schola Cantorum Symphony No. 1 J u l . 16, 1 9 2 6 Lewisohn Stadium

1909-10
Symphony No. 1 D e c . 16, 17, 1 9 0 9 (United States premiere) Carnegie Hall G u s t a v Mahler

ber's Feld" Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Rheinlegendchen" Nov. 2 2 , 2 5 , 1910 Carnegie Hall G u s t a v Mahler Alma Gluck, soprano

Josef Stransky May Peterson, s o p r a n o

1920-21
Symphony No. 1 Dec. 3 1 , 1 9 2 0 ; J a n . 2 0 , 1921 Carnegie Hall Josef Stransky

B r u n o Walter Symphony No. 2 Mar. 2 8 , 1 9 2 5 Carnegie Hall Apr. 5, 1 9 2 5

Willem van Hoogstraten S y m p h o n y N o . 2: M v t . 2

1908-09
*Symphony No. 2 D e c . 8, 1 9 0 8 (United States premiere) Carnegie Hall G u s t a v Mahler Laura L. C o m b s , soprano G e r t r u d e Stein Bailey, alto O r a t o r i o Society

Jan. 26, 1910 Carnegie Hall Jan. 28, 1910 Brooklyn Academy of Music G u s t a v Mahler L u d w i g Wllner, baritone

1921-22
Symphony No. 3 Feb. 2 8 , 1 9 2 2 Metropolitan Carnegie Opera House

Metropolitan

Opera

House

Nov. 2 8 , 1 9 2 5 + + [Students' C o n c e r t ] Carnegie Hall Willem M e n g e l b e r g

G u s t a v Mahler Bella Alten, s o p r a n o

Willem M e n g e l b e r g M a r i e Sundelius, s o p r a n o M m e . Charles Cahier, contralto C h o r u s o f the Schola Cantorum

1911-12
S y m p h o n y N o . 5: M v t . 1 Nov. 2 3 , 2 4 , 1 9 1 1 (In m e m o r y of G u s t a v Mahler) Carnegie Hall J o s e f Stransky

Mar. 2 , 3, 1 9 2 2

1926-27
Symphony No. 5 D e c . 2 , 3, 1 9 2 6 Carnegie Hall

1910-11
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen: " G i n g heut' M o r g e n

Hall

Mar. 5, 1 9 2 2 Brooklyn Academy of Music Willem M e n g e l b e r g Julia C l a u s s e n , contralto

* Symphony Society Orchestra +

1925-26
*Des Knaben Wunderhorn: " D a s irdische Leben"
Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist ++

176

Willem M e n g e l b e r g
Radio broadcast date, no known copy

l77

*Symphony Society Orchestra + Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist ++ Radio broadcast, no known copy

Bruno Jaenicke, horn

1927-28
Symphony N o . 5 Dec. 4, 17, 1927 Carnegie Hall Dec. 5, 1927 Philadelphia, PA Dec. 6, 1927 Baltimore, MD Willem Mengelberg Bruno Jaenicke, horn

Symphony N o . 7: Mvts. 2 and 4 Jul. 19, 1931 Lewisohn Stadium Willem van Hoogstraten

Carnegie Hall Bruno Walter Jeannette Vreeland, soprano Sigrid Onegin, contralto Chorus of the Schola Cantorum of New York

1936-37
Symphony N o . 2: Mvt. 2 July 2 1 , 1937 Lewisohn Stadium Fritz Reiner

Lewisohn Stadium William Steinberg

1943-44
Symphony N o . 2 Dec. 2, 3, 4, 5+, 1943 Carnegie Hall Artur Rodzinski Astrid Varnay, soprano Enid Szantho, contralto The Westminster Choir Symphony N o . 2: Mvt. 2 Jan. 8, 1944 [encore] Carnegie Hall Artur Rodzinski Symphony N o . 4 Feb. 3, 4, 5 [Students' Concert], 6+,1944 Carnegie Hall Bruno Walter Desi Halban, soprano Symphony N o . 2: Mvt. 2 Jun. 28, 1944 Lewisohn Stadium Alexander Smallens

1941-42
Symphony N o . 4 Jan. 7, 9, 1942 Carnegie Hall Dimitri Mitropoulos Mona Paulee, mezzo-soprano Symphony N o . 2 Jan. 22, 23, 25 ++, 1942 Carnegie Hall Bruno Walter Nadine Conner, soprano Mona Paulee, mezzo-soprano The Westminster Choir Kindertotenlieder Jun. 27, 1942 Lewisohn Stadium Alexander Smallens Blair McClosky, baritone

1931-32 1933-34
Symphony N o . 7: Mvts. 2 and 4 Nov. 18, 20, 21 [Students' Concert], 1931 Carnegie Hall Nov. 22, 1931++ Brooklyn Academy of Music Erich Kleiber Symphony N o . 5 Feb. 11, 12, 13 [Students' Concert], 14++, 1932 Carnegie Hall Bruno Walter Bruno Jaenicke, horn Symphony N o . 1 Aug. 11, 1933 Lewisohn Stadium Willem van Hoogstraten Symphony N o . 1 Oct. 12, 13, 14, 15++, 1933 Carnegie Hall Bruno Walter

1939-40
Symphony N o . 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto) Oct. 26, 27, Dec. 16 [Students' Concert], 17++, 1939 Carnegie Hall John Barbirolli

1928-29
Das Lied von der Erde Jan. 3, 4, 1929 Carnegie Hall Willem Mengelberg Margaret Matzenauer, contralto Richard Crooks, tenor

1934-35
Das Lied von der Erde Dec. 20, 2 1 , 1934 Carnegie Hall Bruno Walter Maria Olszewska, contralto Frederick Jagel, tenor

1940-41
Symphony No. 1 Jan. 8, 10, 12+, 1941 Carnegie Hall Dimitri Mitropoulos Das Lied von der Erde Jan. 23, 24, 1941 Carnegie Hall Bruno Walter Kerstin Thorborg, contralto Charles Kullman, tenor Symphony N o . 1: Mvt. 2 Aug. 4, 1941
* Symphony Society Orchestra

1929-30
D a s L i e d von der E r d e
J a n . 16, 17, 1 9 3 0

1935-36
Symphony N o . 2 Dec. 12, 13, 15++, 1935 Carnegie Hall Otto Klemperer Susanne Fisher, soprano Enid Szantho, contralto Chorus of the Schola Cantorum of New York
++ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

1942-43
Symphony N o . 1 Oct. 22, 23, 25++ 1942 Carnegie Hall Oct. 24, 1942 Princeton, NJ Bruno Walter
+ Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

Carnegie

Hall

1944-45
Das Lied von der Erde Nov. 16, 17, 19+, 1944 Carnegie Hall Artur Rodzinski
++ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Willem Mengelberg Margaret Matzenauer, contralto Richard C r o o k s , tenor

1932-33
Symphony N o . 2 Feb. 23, 24, 1933

178
* Symphony Society Orchestra +

179

Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

Kerstin Thorberg, contralto Charles Kullman, tenor Symphony No. 2: Mvt. 2 June 24, 1945
Lewisohn Stadium

Bruno Walter James Chambers, horn Symphony No. 1 (Mvt. 4 abridged for broadcast) Mar. 2 0 , 2 1 , 2 2 , 23+, 1947
Carnegie Hall

1948-49
Symphony No. 7 Nov. 11, 12, 1948
Carnegie Hall

George London, bass-baritone Schola Cantorum of New York Westminster Choir Boys' Chorus from Public School No. 12, Manhattan

Bruno Walter Irmgard Seefried, soprano Symphony No. 4 Jan. 4, 1953+

Carnegie Hall

(Mvts. 1, 3, and 6 abridged for broadcast) Apr. 12, 13, 15 +, 1956

Carnegie Hall

Dimitri Mitropoulos Symphony No. 2 Dec. 2, 3, 5 +, 1948

Carnegie Hall

Alexander Smallens

1951-52
Symphony No. 4 Aug. 22, 1951
Edinburgh, Scotland

Bruno Walter Irmgard Seefried, soprano Das Lied von der Erde Feb. 19, 20, 22 +, 1953
Carnegie Hall

Dimitri Mitropoulos Beatrice Krebs, mezzo-contralto Women's Chorus of the Westminster Choir

1945-46
Symphony No. 1 Oct. 18, 19, 20,21++, 1945 (Only Mvts. 1 and 2 broadcast)
Carnegie Hall

Efrem Kurtz Symphony No. 2: Mvt. 2 Jul. 16, 1947

Lewisohn Stadium

Alexander Smallens

Bruno Walter Nadine Conner, soprano Jean Watson, contralto Westminster Choir

1956-57
Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" Rckert Lieder: "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" Feb. 14, 15, 1957
Carnegie Hall

Bruno Walter Irmgard Seefried, soprano Symphony No. 1 Oct. 18, 19, 21++, 1951
Carnegie Hall

Artur Rodzinski

1947-48
Symphony No. 9 Dec. 20, 21, 1945
Carnegie Hall

1949-50
Symphony No. 1 Feb. 9, 10, 12 +, 1950
Carnegie Hall

Bruno Walter Elena Nikolaidi, contralto Set Svanholm, tenor

Bruno Walter Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Apr. 4, 5, 1946

Carnegie Hall

Symphony No. 6 Dec. 11, 12, 13 [Students' Concert], 1947 (United States premiere)
Carnegie Hall

1953-54
Symphony No. 1 Jan. 24, 1954+
Carnegie Hall

Dimitri Mitropoulos

Bruno Walter Symphony No. 8 Apr. 6, 7, 9 +, 1950

Carnegie Hall

1952-53
Symphony No. 4 Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" " Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?" Rckert Lieder: "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" Jan. 1,2, 1953
Carnegie Hall

Bruno Walter

Bruno Walter Maria Stader, soprano Symphony No. 2 Feb. 14, 15, 17 +, 1957
Carnegie Hall

Dimitri Mitropoulos Das Lied von der Erde Jan. 15, 16, 18 +, 1948
Carnegie Hall

1954-55
Symphony No. 6 Apr. 7, 8, 10 +, 1955
Carnegie Hall

Artur Rodzinski Marian Anderson, contralto

1946-47
Symphony No. 5 Feb. 6, 7, 1947
180 Carnegie
*

Bruno Walter Kathleen Ferrier, mezzo-soprano Set Svanholm, tenor

Hall
+ Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist ++

Leopold Stokowski Frances Yeend, soprano Uta Graf, soprano Camilla Williams, soprano Martha Lipton, mezzo-soprano Louise Bernhardt, alto Eugene Conley, tenor Carlos Alexander, tenor
Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Dimitri Mitropoulos

Bruno Walter Maria Stader, soprano Maureen Forrester, contralto The Westminster Choir

1955-56
Symphony No. 3
no known copy

181

Symphony Society Orchestra

* Symphony Society Orchestra f Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist ft Radio broadcast day,

1957-58
Symphony No. 10: Mvts. 1 and 3 [Krenek] Mar. 13, 14, 16+, 1958 (New York premiere) Carnegie Hall Dimitri Mitropoulos

Symphony No. 1 Jan. 7, 8, 9+, 10, 1960 Carnegie Hall Dimitri Mitropoulos Symphony No. 10: Mvt. 1 [Krenek] Jan. 14, 15, 16+, 17, 1960 Carnegie Hall Dimitri Mitropoulos Symphony No. 9 Jan. 21, 22, 23+, 24, 1960 Carnegie Hall Dimitri Mitropoulos Symphony No. 1 (excerpts) Symphony No. 2 (excerpts) Symphony No. 4 (excerpts) Das Lied von der Erde (excerpts) Des Knaben Wunderhorn (selections) Jan. 23, 1960 (Young People's Concert: "Who Is Gustav Mahler?") Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein Reri Grist, soprano Helen Raab, contralto William Lewis, tenor

Symphony No. 4 Jan. 28, 29, 30++, 31, 1960 Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein Reri Grist, soprano Rckert Lieder: "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" "Um Mitternacht" Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Das irdische Leben " Feb. 4, 5, 6++, 7, 1960 Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein Jennie Tourel, mezzo-soprano Kindertotenlieder Feb. 11, 1960 Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein Gerard Souzay, baritone Kindertotenlieder Feb. 12, 13++ 14, 1960 Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein Jennie Tourel, mezzo-soprano Symphony No. 2 Feb. 18, 19, 20+, 21, 1960 Carnegie Hall
+ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Leonard Bernstein Phyllis Curtin, soprano Regina Resnik, mezzo-soprano Rutgers University Choir Das Lied von der Erde Apr. 15, 16+, 21, 24, 1960 Carnegie Hall Bruno Walter Maureen Forrester, contralto Richard Lewis, tenor

1961-62
Symphony No. 4 Jan. 11, 12, 13+, 14, 1962 Carnegie Hall Georg Solti Irmgard Seefried, soprano Symphony No. 7 (Mvt. 5 abridged for broadcast) Mar. 15, 16, 17+, 18, 1962 Carnegie Hall William Steinberg Symphony No. 1 May 3, 4, 5++, 6, 1962 Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein

Ezio Flagello, baritone George London, bass-baritone Schola Cantorum of New York Juilliard Chorus Columbus Boychoir Symphony No. 9 Dec. 6, 7, 8+, 9, 1962 Philharmonic Hall Sir John Barbirolli Symphony No. 5 Jan. 3, 4, 5++, 6, 1963 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein James Chambers, horn

1958-59
Symphony No. 1 Jan. 8, 9, 10+, 11, 1959 Carnegie Hall Sir John Barbirolli Symphony No. 1: Mvt. 3 Feb. 28, 1959 [television broadcast] (Young Peoples Concert: "Humor in Music") Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein

1960-61
Symphony No. 2: Mvt. 4 ("Urlicht") Nov. 3, 4, 5++, 6, 1960 Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein Jennie Tourel, mezzo-soprano Symphony No. 3 Mar. 30, 31+, Apr. 1, 2, 1961 (In memory of Dimitri Mitropoulos) Carnegie Hall Leonard Bernstein Martha Lipton, mezzo-soprano Women's Chorus from the Schola Cantorum of New York Boys' Choir from the Little Church Around the Corner

1963-64
Symphony No. 2 Sep. 26, 27, 28, 29, 1963 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Lee Venora, soprano Jennie Tourel, mezzo-soprano Collegiate Chorale Symphony No. 2 Nov. 24, 1963 (Television broadcast; in memory of President John F. Kennedy) CBS Studios, NY
+ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

1962-63
Symphony No. 8: Mvt. 1 Sep. 23, 1962+ (Inaugural concert in Philharmonic Hall) Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Adele Addison, soprano Lucine Amara, soprano Lili Chookasian, mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel, mezzo-soprano Richard Tucker, tenor
Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

1959-60
Mahler Festival Symphony No. 5 Dec. 31, 1959; Jan. l,2+, 3, 1960 Carnegie Hall Dimitri Mitropoulos James Chambers, horn
* S y m p h o n y Society Orchestra

182

183

+ Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

S y m p h o n y Society Orchestra

Leonard Bernstein Lucine Amara, soprano Jennie Tourel, mezzo-soprano Schola Cantorum of New York D a s Lied von der Erde Feb. 2 0 , 2 1 , 2 2 , 23+ 1964 Philharmonic Hall Joseph Krips Maureen Forrester, contralto Richard Lewis, tenor

Pierrette Alarie, soprano Symphony N o . 6 Apr. 29, 30, May l , 2 + , 1965 Philharmonic Hall William Steinberg

St. Kilian Boychoir Symphony N o . 10: Mvt. 1 [Krenek] Jan. 19, 1966++ (Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition winners) Philharmonic Hall Sylvia Caduff

(90th anniversary of Bruno Walter' s birth) Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Das Lied von der Erde Mar. 17, 18+, 20, 1967 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Jess Thomas, tenor Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone Symphony N o . 6 Apr. 27, 28, 29+, May 1, 1967 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Symphony N o . 2 Jun. 2 2 , 24, 1967 (Opening concerts, 125th anniversary) Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Veronica Tyler, soprano Jennie Tourel, mezzo-soprano Schola Cantorum of New York

1965-66
Symphony N o . 9 Nov. 2 5 , 26, 27+, 29, 1965 (In memory of President John F. Kennedy) Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Symphony N o . 7 Dec. 2, 3, 4+, 6, 1965 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Symphony N o . 8 Dec. 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 1965 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Saramae Endich, soprano Ella Lee, soprano Jennie Tourel, mezzo-soprano Beverly Wolff, mezzo-soprano George Shirley, tenor John Boyden, baritone Ezio Flagello, bass Westminster Choir
+ Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist +

1966-67
Symphony N o . 1 Sep. 13, 1966 Philadelphia, PA Sep. 16, 1966 Villanova, PA Sep. 17, 1966 Richmond, VA Sep. 18, 1966 Washington, DC Sep. 20, 1966 Hartford, CT Sep. 2 1 , 1966 Storrs, CT Sep. 2 2 , 1966 Springfield, MA Sep. 24, 1966 Providence, RI Sep. 2 5 , 1966 Boston, MA Sep. 29, 30, Oct. 1+, 3, 1966
Radio broadcast date, no known copy

1964-65
Kindertotenlieder Oct. 8, 9, 10, 11+, 1964 Philharmonic Hall Joseph Krips Maureen Forrester, contralto Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Nov. 26, 27+, 1964 Philharmonic Hall William Steinberg Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone Symphony N o . 4 Feb. 25 [Students' Concert], 26, 27, 28+, 1965 Philharmonic Hall Joseph Krips
* Symphony Society Orchestra

Sep. 14, 1967 Chicago, IL Sep. 19, 1967 Calgary, Canada Sep. 20, 1967 Vancouver, Canada Sep. 2 5 , 1967 London, Canada Sep. 27, 1967 Ottawa, Canada Sep. 29, 1967 Montreal, Canada Oct. 5, 6, 7, 9, 1967 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Jeannette Zarou, soprano Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Der Schildwache Nachtlied" "Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?" "Lob des hohen Verstandes" "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" "Rheinlegendchen" "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" "Revelge" "Verlor'ne Mh'" Oct. 12, 13, 14, 16, 1967 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano Walter Berry, baritone
Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist ++

Symphony N o . 5 Oct. 19, 2 0 , 2 1 , 2 3 , 2 5 , 1967 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Joseph Singer, horn Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Rheinlegendchen" "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" "Verlor'ne Muh'" Oct. 28, 1967, morn. & aft. [television broadcast] (Young People's Concert: "A Toast to Vienna in / 4 Time") Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano Walter Berry, baritone
3

Symphony N o . 10 [Cooke] Apr. 2 5 , 26, 27, 29, 1968 Philharmonic Hall William Steinberg Symphony N o . 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto) June 8, 1968 (Funeral of Robert F. Kennedy) St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, NY Leonard Bernstein 185
Radio broadcast date, no known copy

1967-68
Symphony N o . 4 Sep. 12, 1967 Ann Arbor, MI
* Symphony Society Orchestra +

184

1968-69
Symphony No. 5 Aug. 24, 1968 Ghent, Belgium Aug. 29, 1968 Jerusalem, Israel Aug. 31, 1968 Caesarea, Israel Sep. 5, 1968 Vienna, Austria Sep. 8, 1968 Venice, Italy Sep. 12, 1968 Montreux, Switzerland Sep. 14, 15, 1968 Milan, Italy Sep. 22, 24, 1968 Berlin, Germany Sep. 29, 1968 Washington, DC Leonard Bernstein Joseph Singer, horn Kindertotenlieder Oct. 23, 28, 1968 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone Symphony No. 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto)
* S y m p h o n y Society Orchestra

Mar. 28, 1969 (In memory of President Dwight D. Eisenhower) Philharmonic Hall Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 3 May 15, 16, 17, 1969 Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Betty Allen, mezzo-soprano Women's Chorus from the Schola Cantorum of New York Boys' Choir from the Little Church Around the Corner The Browning School Boys' Choir John Ware, posthorn

[Lincoln Center Student Program], 1970 Philharmonic Hall May 6, 1970 Washington, DC Lorin Maazel Jane Marsh, soprano

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen May 6, 7, 8, 1971 Philharmonic Hall Pierre Boulez Yvonne Minton, mezzo-soprano

1972-73
SymphonyNo. 5 Aug. 19, 1972 Vienna, VA Aug. 26, 1972 Rochester, MI Aug. 29, 1972 Madison, WI Sep. 6, 1972 Topeka, KS Sep. 7, 1972 Bloomington, IN Erich Leinsdorf Joseph Singer, horn SymphonyNo. 10: Mvt. 1 [Krenek] Sep. 14, 1972 Columbus, OH Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 6 Sep. 28, 29, 30, Oct. 3, 1972 Philharmonic Hall Pierre Boulez Rckert Lieder: "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen"

"Liebst du um Schnheit" "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!" "Um Mitternacht" Feb. 1,2, 1973 Philharmonic Hall Pierre Boulez Siegmund Nimsgern, baritone Symphony No. 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto) Jun. 1, 5, 6, 1973 Philharmonic Hall Aaron Copland

1971-72 1970-71
Symphony No. 9 Aug. 29, 1970 Osaka, Japan Sep. 7, 1970 Tokyo, Japan Sep. 24, 25, 28, 1970 (In memory of Sir John Barbirolli and George Szell) Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Symphony No. 3: Mvt. 6 Jan. 5, 1971++ (Mitropoulos International Music Competition) Felt Forum, New York Leonard Bernstein Symphony No. 1 (with Blumine) Feb. 11, 12, 13, 15, 1971 Philharmonic Hall Seiji Ozawa
++ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Symphony No. 10: Mvt. 1 [Ratz] Sep. 23, 24, 25, 27, 1971 Philharmonic Hall Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 2 Dec. 15, 1971 (Leonard Bernstein's 1000th concert with the New York Philharmonic) Philharmonic Hall Leonard Bernstein Martina Arroyo, soprano Shirley Verrett, mezzo-soprano The Camerata Singers Symphony No. 5 May 11, 12, 13, 1972 Philharmonic Hall Lorin Maazel Joseph Singer, horn

1973-74
Symphony No. 8 Feb. 14, 15, 16, 19, 1974 Avery Fisher Hall Pierre Boulez Edda Moser, soprano Felicity Palmer, soprano Betty Allen, mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani, mezzo-soprano Werner Hollweg, tenor Siegmund Nimsgern, baritone Raymond Michalski, bass-baritone Westminster Choir Boys' Choir from the Little Church Around the Corner Trinity School Boys' Choir St. Pauls Episcopal Church
++ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

1969-70
Symphony No. 6 Nov. 20, 21, 22, 24, 1969 Philharmonic Hall George Szell Symphony No. 1 Jan. 8, 9, 12, 1970 Philharmonic Hall Rafael Frhbeck de Burgos Symphony No. 4 Apr. 16, 17, 18, 20
+ Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

186

187

S y m p h o n y Society Orchestra

Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

Boys' Choir Newark Boys' Chorus Symphony No. 1 Apr. 18, 19, 20, 23, 1974
Avery Fisher Hall

Symphony No. 4 Sep. 19, 2 0 , 2 1 , 2 4 , 1974

Avery Fisher Hall

Avery Fisher Hall

Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 1 Dec. 18, 19, 20+, 30, 1975
Avery Fisher Hall

Pierre Boulez

Symphony No. 7 May 13, 14, 15, 1976

Avery Fisher Hall

Symphony No. 2 Oct. 1, 1976+

Carnegie Hall

Pierre Boulez Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano Symphony No. 9 Sep. 26, 27, 28, Oct. 1, 1974
Avery Fisher Hall

1975-76
Symphony No. 10: Mvt. 1 [Ratz] Aug. 23, 1975
Vienna, VA Scotland Belgium

Pierre Boulez

William Steinberg Symphony No. 1: Mvt. 2 Jan. 31, 1976 [Young People' s Concert]
Avery Fisher Hall

1976-77
Mahler Festival Symphony No. 5 Aug. 26, 1976
Lewiston, NY NY

Bernhard Klee Symphony No. 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto) Aug. 6, 1974

Central Park, New York, NY

James Levine Carol Neblett, soprano Jessye Norman, soprano Westminster Choir Symphony No. 6 Oct. 2, 1976+
Carnegie Hall

Aug. 29, 1975++

Edinburgh,

Pierre Boulez Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Mar. 6, 1975

Avery Fisher Hall

Sep. 2, 1975
Brussels, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich,

Michael Tilson-Thomas Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Revelge"

u

Aug. 28, 1976

Saratoga Springs,

James Levine Rckert Lieder: "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" "Um Mitternacht" "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder" "Liebst du um Schnheit" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" Des Knaben Wunderhorn: " Rheinlegendchen" "Das irdische Leben" "Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?" "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" Oct. 8, 1976+
Carnegie Hall

Leonard Bernstein

Sep. 12, 1975

Germany Germany Germany

Sep. 1, 1976
Helsinki, Leningrad, Moscow, Carnegie Finland USSR USSR Hall

1974-75
Symphony No. 5 Aug. 17, 1974
Wellington, Christchurch, Sydney, New Zealand New Zealand

Sep. 13, 1975 Sep. 16, 1975 Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 9 Aug. 30, 1975+
London, England

Pierre Boulez Betty Allen, mezzo-soprano Symphony No. 10: Mvt. 1 [Ratz] Mar. 27, 28, 29, Apr. 1, 1975
Avery Fisher Hall

Aug. 18, 1974 Aug. 23, 1974

Australia Australia

Aug. 28, 1974

Melbourne,

Leonard Bernstein Symphony No. 9 Jun. 27, 1975

Avery Fisher Hall

Sep. 1, 1974
Tokyo, Japan

Sep. 3, 1975 [television broadcast]

Ghent, Lucerne, Mannheim, Belgium Switzerland Germany

Sep. 10, 1974

Osaka, Japan

Sep. 4, 1975 Sep. 15, 1975

" Rheinlegendchen" "Lied des Verfolgten im Turme" "Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?" "Trost im Unglck" "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" "Das irdische Leben" "Lob des hohen Verstandes" "Verlor' ne Mh" "Der Tamboursg'sell" Feb. 26, 27, 28, Mar. 2+, 1976
Avery Fisher Hall

Sep. 10, 1976 Sep. 17, 1976 Sep. 26, 1976+ Erich Leinsdorf John Cerminaro, horn Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Sep. 26, 1976+ Carnegie Hall

Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 10: Mvt. 1 [Krenek] Jun. 29, 1975
+ Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

Leonard Bernstein John Cerminaro, horn

188
* Symphony Society Orchestra

Sep. 19, 1975

Chartres, France

James Levine Jessye Norman, soprano John Shirley-Quirk, baritone

Erich Leinsdorf Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano

James Levine Maria Ewing, mezzo-soprano

189

* + Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Symphony Society Orchestra

f Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

ff Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Symphony No. 4 Oct. 8, 1976+ Carnegie Hall James Levine Judith Blegen, soprano Symphony No. 8 Oct. 9, 1976+ Carnegie Hall James Levine Carol Neblett, soprano Teresa Zylis-Gara, soprano Kathleen Battle, soprano Lili Chookasian, contralto Gwendolyn Killebrew, mezzo-soprano Kenneth Riegel, tenor Michael Devlin, baritone Donald Mclntyre, baritone Westminster Choir Boys' Choir from the Little Church Around the Corner Trinity School Boys' Choir The Brooklyn Boys' Chorus Symphony No. 1 Symphony No. 10: Mvt. 1 [Ratz] Oct. 11, 1976+ Carnegie Hall James Levine

Symphony No. 7 Oct. 16, 1976+ Carnegie Hall Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 9 Oct. 17, 1976+ Carnegie Hall Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 9: Mvts. 2 & 4 Oct. 18, 1976 (Honoring construction workers) Avery Fisher Hall Pierre Boulez Symphony No. 3 Oct. 21,22, 23+, 26, 1976 Avery Fisher Hall Oct. 25, 1976 Carnegie Hall Pierre Boulez Yvonne Minton, mezzo-soprano The Camerata Singers Boys' Choir from the Little Church Around the Corner Trinity School Boys' Choir The Brooklyn Boys' Chorus John Ware, posthorn

Symphony No. 1: Mvt. 4 Feb. 23, 1977 (Young People's Concert: "Harmony") Avery Fisher Hall David Gilbert Symphony No. 5 Mar. 3+, 4, 5, 8, 1977 Avery Fisher Hall David Gilbert John Cerminaro, horn Symphony No. 1: Mvt. 1 Mar. 14, 1977 [Educational Concert] Avery Fisher Hall Erich Leinsdorf All-City H.S. Orchestra 1977-78 Symphony No. 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto) Oct. 15, 17, 1977 [television broadcast] (Young People's Concerts: "Music and Your Emotions"' Avery Fisher Hall Erich Leinsdorf Symphony No. 9 Jan. 19+, 24, 1978

Avery Fisher Hall Rafael Kubelik Symphony No. 1: Mvt. 4 Aug. 28, 1978 Marine Park, Brooklyn, NY Zubin Mehta Symphony No. 1 Aug. 29, 1978 Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, NY Aug. 30, 1978 Holmdel, NJ Zubin Mehta 1978-79 Symphony No. 1 Sep. 3, 1978 Buenos Aires, Argentina Sep. 7, 1978 Dominican Republic Sep. 14+, 15, 16, 19, Oct. 6, 1978 Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Symphony No. 5 Jan. 25, 26+, 27, 30, 1979 Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Martin Smith, horn
* Symphony Society Orchestra +

Symphony No. 6 Mar. 15, 16+, 17, 20, 1979 Avery Fisher Hall Claudio Abbado Symphony No. 1 Apr. 18, 1979 Boston, MA Apr. 19, 1979 Hartford, CT Apr. 21, 1979 Washington, DC Apr. 23, 1979 Philadelphia, PA Zubin Mehta Symphony No. 1 Jun. 9, 1979+ Avery Fisher Hall Jun. 13, 1979 Denver, CO Jun. 16, 1979 Concord, CA Jun. 22,1979 Kyoto, Japan Jun. 25,1979 Osaka, Japan Jun. 27, 1979 Niigata, Japan Jun. 30, 1979 Seoul, Korea Jul. 5, 6, 1979 Tokyo, Japan
Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist +

Leonard Bernstein Symphony No. 5 Aug. 16, 1979 N Y Botanical Gardens, Bronx, NY Aug. 19, 1979 Eisenhower Park, East Meadow, NY Aug. 21, 1979 Snug Harbor, Staten Island, NY Aug. 25, 1979+ Tanglewood, Lenox, MA Zubin Mehta Martin Smith, horn 1979-80 Rckert Lieder: "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder" "Um Mitternacht" "Liebst du um Schnheit" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" Nov. 15, 16+, 17, 20, 1979 Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Jessye Norman, soprano
Radio broadcast date, no known copy

190
* Symphony Society Orchestra + Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist +

191

Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Symphony No. 4 Feb. 28, 29 +, Mar. 1,4, 1980

Avery Fisher Hall

Philip Myers, horn Symphony No. 1 Aug. 18, 1980

Central Park, New York, NY

Walter Weller Maria Ewing, mezzo-soprano Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" "Revelge" "Der Tamboursg'sell" "Lied des Verfolgten im Turm" "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" "Trost im Unglck" May l+, 3, 1980
Avery Fisher Hall

Aug. 19, 1980

Crocheron Park, Queens, NY

"Revelge" "Der Tamboursg'sell" "Lied des Verfolgten im Turm" "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" "Trost im Unglck" Sep. 7, 1980
Berlin, Germany

Brooklyn Boys' Chorus Philip Smith, posthorn Symphony No. 7 Feb. 26, 27, 28 +, Mar. 3, 1981
Avery Fisher Hall

Avery Fisher Hall

Aug. 10, 1982

Co-Op City, Bronx, NY

Zubin Mehta Frederica von Stade, mezzo-soprano Symphony No. 9 Feb. 18, 19, 20+, 23, 1982
Avery Fisher Hall

James Conlon

1982-83
Symphony No. 6 Oct. 14, 15, 16+, 1982
Avery Fisher Hall

Rafael Kubelik Symphony No. 4 Jun. 9, 1981 +

Avery Fisher Hall

Zubin Mehta Rckert Lieder: "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder" "Um Mitternacht" "Liebst du um Schnheit" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" Aug. 25, 1980+
Edinburgh, Scotland

Zubin Mehta Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone Symphony No. 1 Sep. 7, 1980

Berlin, Bonn, Vienna, Germany Germany Austria

Klaus Tennstedt Symphony No. 2 Mar. 7, 1982+

Avery Fisher Hall

Giuseppe Sinopoli Symphony No. 5 Jul. 25, 1983

Omaha, NE CA

James Conlon Kathleen Battle, soprano

1981-82
Kindertotenlieder Sep. 10, l1 +, 12, 15, 1981
Avery Fisher Hall

Sep. 9, 1980 Sep. 11, 1980+ Sep. 16, 17, 1980

Paris, France

Zubin Mehta Kathleen Battle, soprano Maureen Forrester, contralto Westminster Choir Symphony No. 1 Aug. 3, 1982
Marine Park, Brooklyn, NY NY

Jul. 27, 1983

Hollywood,

Jul. 28, 1983

San Francisco, CA

Zubin Mehta Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, baritone Symphony No. 5 Jun. 18, 1980+
Avery Fisher Hall

Aug. 4, 1983
Houston, TX

Zubin Mehta Jessye Norman, soprano Symphony No. 1 Aug. 25, 1980+
Edinburgh, Lucerne, Scotland Switzerland

Zubin Mehta Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano Symphony No. 2 Sep. 17, 18, 19 +, 22, 1981
Avery Fisher Hall

Aug. 6, 1983
St. Louis, MO

Sep. 18, 1980

London, England

Aug. 4, 1982
Snug Harbor, Staten Island, Queens, NY

Zubin Mehta

Aug. 5, 1982
Crocheron Park,

Zubin Mehta Philip Myers, horn

Jun. 20, 1980

Syracuse, NY

1980-81
Symphony No. 3 Oct. 2, 3+, 4, 7, 1980
Avery Fisher Hall

Jun. 23, 1980

Chicago, IL

Aug. 27, 1980 Zubin Mehta Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen"
+ Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist +

Jun. 25, 1980

Vienna, Saratoga, VA NY

Zubin Mehta Kathleen Battle, soprano Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano Westminster Choir Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Jan. 14+, 15, 1982
* Symphony Society Orchestra +

Aug. 7, 1982
Hecksher State Park, East Is lip, NY

1983-84
Symphony No. 1 Sep. 14, 1983+
Avery Fisher Hall NY

Aug. 8, 1982
Eisenhower Park, East Meadow,

Jun. 28, 1980 192 Klaus Tennstedt

* Symphony Society Orchestra

Zubin Mehta Maureen Forrester, contralto New York Choral Artists

Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Rafael Kubelik
193
+ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Aug. 9, 1982
Central Park, New York, NY
Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

Des Knaben Wunderhorn: "Revelge" "Lob des hohen Verstandes" "Wo die schnen Trompeten blasen" "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" "Der Tamboursg' sell" Oct. 6, 7+, 8, 1983 Avery Fisher Hall Larry Newland Hkan Hagegrd, baritone Symphony No. 5 Oct. 11, 1983+ Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Philip Myers, horn Symphony No. 10 [Cooke] Jan. 5, 6+, 7, 10, 1984 Avery Fisher Hall Kurt Sanderling Symphony No. 2 Jan. 12, 13, l4+, 17, 1984 Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Bernstein Barbara Hendricks, soprano Jessye Norman, soprano The Choir of St. Patrick's Cathedral New Amsterdam Singers
* Symphony Society Orchestra +

Symphony No. 10 [Cooke] Jan. 20, 24, 1984 Avery Fisher Hall Kurt Sanderling Das Lied von der Erde Feb. 2, 3, 4, 7, 1984+ Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo-soprano Jon Frederick West, tenor Symphony No. 2: Mvt. 2 Mar. 14, 1984+ (60th anniversary of Young People's Concerts) Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Bernstein Symphony No. 3 May 24+, 25, 26, 1984 Avery Fisher Hall Erich Leinsdorf Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano New York Choral Artists Brooklyn Boys Chorus Philip Smith, posthorn Symphony No. 5 Aug. 25, 1984 Seoul, Korea Aug. 27, 1984+
Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist +

Taipei, Taiwan Sep. 5, 1984 Jakarta, Indonesia Sep. 17, 1984 Bombay, India Zubin Mehta Philip Myers, horn Symphony No. 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto) Sep. 14, 1984 Calcutta, India Zubin Mehta 1984-85 Symphony No. 5 Apr. 4, 5, 6, 9, 1985+ Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Philip Myers, horn Symphony No. 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto) Apr. 8, 1985 Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem, NY Zubin Mehta Symphony No. 5 May 24, 1985 Avery Fisher Hall May 30, 1985+
Radio broadcast date, no known copy

London, England May 31, 1985 Frankfurt, Germany Jun. 2, 1985+ Munich, Germany Jun. 3, 1985 Berlin, Germany Jun. 6, 1985 Leipzig, Germany Jun. 11, 1985+ Vienna, Austria Jun. 13, 1985 Paris, France Jun. 19, 1985t Rome, Italy Jun. 22, 1985t Madrid, Spain Zubin Mehta Philip Myers, horn 1985-86 Symphony No. 7 Nov. 27, 29, 30, Dec. 3+, 1985 Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Bernstein 1986-87 Symphony No. 6 Oct. 23+, 24, 25, 1986 Avery Fisher Hall
* Symphony Society Orchestra +

Klaus Tennstedt Kindertotenlieder Nov. 26+, 28, 29, 1986 Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Marilyn Horne, mezzo-soprano Symphony No. 2: Mvt. V Dec. 15, 1986 (Carnegie Hall gala reopening) Carnegie Hall Zubin Mehta Benita Valente, soprano Marilyn Horne, mezzo-soprano New York Choral Artists Symphony No. 2 Apr. 16, 17, 1 8 , 2 1 , 1987+ Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Bernstein Barbara Hendricks, soprano Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano The Westminster Symphonic Choir Symphony No. 3 May 28, 29, 30, 1987+ Avery Fisher Hall Giuseppe Sinopoli Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano New York Choral Artists Brooklyn Boys' Chorus
Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist ++

Philip Smith, posthorn 1987-88 Symphony No. 1 Nov. 19, 20+, 2 1 , 2 4 , 1987 Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Bernstein Symphony No. 3 Nov. 25, 27, 28, Dec. 1, 1987+ Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Bernstein Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano New York Choral Artists Brooklyn Boys' Chorus Philip Smith, posthorn Symphony No. 10: Mvt. 1 [Cooke] Das klagende Lied (incl. Waldmrchen) Mar. 24, 25, 26, 1988+ Avery Fisher Hall James Conlon Ruth Falcon, soprano Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano Timothy Jenkins, tenor Jake Gardner, baritone The Dessoff Symphonic Choir New York Choral Artists
195
Radio broadcast date, no known copy

194

Symphony N o . 9 May 19, 20, 24, 1988+ Avery Fisher Hall May 3 1 , 1988+ Leningrad, USSR Jun. 4, 1988+ Moscow, USSR Zubin Mehta

1989-90
Rckert Lieder: "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen' "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder" " U m Mitternacht" "Liebst du um Schnheit" "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" Sep. 20, 1989 Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Jessye Norman, soprano Symphony N o . 5 Sep. 22, 23, 26, Oct. 3, 1989 Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Philip Myers, horn Symphony N o . 7 May 3 1 , Jun. 1, 2, 1990 Avery Fisher Hall Erich Leinsdorf

Florence Quivar, soprano Westminster Symphonic Choir American Boychoir Philip Smith, posthorn Symphony N o . 5: Mvt. 4 (Adagietto) Oct. 16, 1990 (In memory of Leonard Bernstein) Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Slatkin Rckert Lieder: "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" Nov. 14, 1990 ("Remembering Lenny") Carnegie Hall James Levine Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano Symphony N o . 9 Apr. 18, 19, 20, 23, 1991 (In memory of Bruno Walter) Avery Fisher Hall Yoel Levi Symphony N o . 1 May 1, 1991 (Carnegie Hall centennial festival)
++ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Carnegie Hall Zubin Mehta Symphony N o . 3: Mvt. 6 May 5, 1991 (Carnegie Hall centennial: In memory of Leonard Bernstein) Carnegie Hall Zubin Mehta Symphony N o . 1 Jul. 2 1 , 1991 Cunningham Park, Queens, NY Jul. 22, 1991 Central Park, New York, NY Jul. 24, 1991 Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY Zdenek Macal

Symphony N o . 1 Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Apr. 23, 24, 2 5 , 1992 Avery Fisher Hall Kurt Masur Hkan Hagegrd, baritone

Jun. 2 1 , 1994 Taipei, Taiwan Jul. 1,3, 1994 Tokyo, Japan Kurt Masur

1994-95
Symphony N o . 4 Mar. 16, 17, 1 8 , 2 1 , 1995 Avery Fisher Hall Sir Colin Davis Gillian Webster, soprano Symphony N o . 1 May 24 [television broadcast], 2 5 , 26, 27, 1995 Avery Fisher Hall Jun. 15, 1995 Birmingham, England Jun. 18, 1995 Vienna, Austria Jun. 23, 1995 Istanbul, Turkey Kurt Masur

1988-89
Symphony N o . 1 (with Blumine) Sep. 29, 30, Oct. 1, 5 [television broadcast], 1988+ Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Symphony N o . 4 Mar. 23, 24, 2 5 , 28, 1989 Avery Fisher Hall Yoel Levi Benita Valente, soprano Symphony N o . 2 Mar. 30, 3 1 , Apr. 1,4, 1989 Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Bernstein Benita Valente, soprano Wendy White, mezzo-soprano New York Choral Artists 196
* Symphony Society Orchestra +

1992-93
Symphony N o . 6 Oct. 29, 30, 3 1 , Nov. 3, 1992 Avery Fisher Hall Zdenek Macal Symphony N o . 5 Jun. 10, 11, 12, 1993 Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Slatkin Philip Myers, horn

1991-92
Symphony N o . 4 Mar. 4, 5, 6, 1992 Avery Fisher Hall A n d r Previn June Anderson, soprano Symphony N o . 4 Mar. 7, 10, 1992 Avery Fisher Hall A n d r Previn Juliana Gondek, soprano

1993-94
Symphony N o . 9 Mar. 3 1 , Apr. 1,2, 4, 1994 Avery Fisher Hall Apr. 9, 1994 Greenvale, NY May 30, 1994 Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, NY Jun. 3, 1994 Avery Fisher Hall
+ Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist ++

1990-91
Symphony N o . 3 Sep. 14, 15, 18, 1990 Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta
Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist

1995-96
Symphony N o . 5 Feb. 15, 16, 17, 20, 1996 Avery Fisher Hall Michael Tilson Thomas Philip Myers, horn
Radio broadcast date, no known copy

197

Symphony Society Orchestra

Symphony No. 6 Feb. 22, 23, 24, 27, 1996 (100th anniversary of Dimitri Mitropouloss birth) Avery Fisher Hall Daniele Gatti
1996-97

Women of the New York Choral Artists American Boychoir Philip Smith, posthorn
1997-98

Avery Fisher Hall Daniele Gatti Philip Myers, horn Kindertotenlieder Apr. 30, May 1, 2, 5, 1998 Avery Fisher Hall Leonard Slatkin Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone Symphony No. 1 Jul. 7, 9, 1998 Avery Fisher Hall Kurt Masur

Symphony No. 3 Jan. 9, 10, 11, 1997 Avery Fisher Hall Zubin Mehta Florence Quivar, soprano

Symphony No. 6 Jan. 2, 3, 5, 1998 Avery Fisher Hall Valery Gergiev Symphony No. 5 Mar. 18, 19, 20, 2 1 , 1998

198
*

Howard Keresey, Principal Librarian of the New York Philharmonic, 1944-71.

S y m p h o n y Society Orchestra + Radio broadcast date, copy known to exist ++ Radio broadcast date, no known copy

Bruno Walter: Protector and Prophet

by ERIK RYDING

B
encountered

r u n o W a l t e r a n d G u s t a v M a h l e r w e r e c o l l e a g u e s a n d friends. N o other 2 0 t h c e n t u r y c o n d u c t o r c o u l d c l a i m c o m p a r a b l e i n t i m a c y w i t h the last great V i e n n e s e s y m p h o n i c composer. W h e n Walter went to H a m b u r g to serve as Mahler's

assistant ( 1 8 9 4 - 9 6 ) , the e x p e r i e n c e p r o v e d a t u r n i n g p o i n t in his life. He h a d never a conductor or a composer endowed with such interpretive i n s i g h t and

i m a g i n a t i o n , such artistic i n t e g r i t y a n d g e n i u s . I n 1 9 0 1 , W a l t e r j o i n e d M a h l e r a t the V i e n n a State O p e r a , w h e r e the t w o w o u l d w o r k together until M a h l e r ' s d e p a r t u r e for A m e r i c a late i n 1 9 0 7 . T h e V i e n n e s e critics closely identified Walter's c o n d u c t i n g style w i t h M a h l e r ' s , s o m e o f t h e m offering d i s p a r a g i n g r e m a r k s o n the y o u n g " M a h l e r i m i t a t o r , " others h e a p i n g praise o n M a h l e r ' s gifted p r o t g . M a h l e r p l a y e d his w o r k s - i n - p r o g r e s s for W a l t e r o n the p i a n o ( W a l t e r

Gustav Mahler, conductor-pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch (background), and Bruno Walter in 200 Prague, 1908, on the occasion of the premiere of Mahler's Seventh Symphony.

played his for Mahler as well), and Walter was present at several premieres given by his friend There is no doubt about Mahler's admiration for his younger colleague. Before leaving Vienna, Mahler wrote to Walter: "I can think of no one by whom I feel myself so well understood as by you, and I believe, too, that I've penetrated into the deep passages of your soul." They continued to correspond with each other across the Atlantic and to meet when Mahler returned to Europe. In 1909, Walter led a performance of Mahler's Third in Vienna, scoring one of his earliest triumphs as a symphonic conductor. After Mahler's death in 1911, he wrote a letter of condolence to Alma, assuring her that his "ardent love" for Mahler, "which has warmed my very soul every day since I first met him, will be active on the path that nature has chosen for meas protector and prophet of his work." For the most part, Walter remained true to his word. He gave the first performances of Das Lied von der Erde (1911) and the Ninth Symphony (1912); he also led the Viennese premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony (1912), a work he conducted to great acclaim on several occasions. And he continued to perform and record Mahler's work to the end of his life. True, he avoided two major works, the Seventh Symphony (which he hardly ever performed) and the Sixth (which he seems never to have performed). W h y he did so will perhaps always be a mystery, but he expressed profound satisfaction when, during his tenure as Musical Adviser to the New York Philharmonic, they appeared on the programs of his colleagueanother champion of MahlerDimitri Mitropoulos. What did Walter bring to Mahler's works? Already in Vienna, Walter's conducting struck listeners as being different from Mahler's, somewhat gentler, more lyricalthough his interpretations were widely regarded as the closest to Mahler's own by people who had heard 202 both conductors at the podium. His collaborations with the New York Philharmonic

inspired some of his most forceful conducting, yet even those performances retain a characteristic elegance, the phrases neatly tapering off, the loudest fortes never turning into noise. He encouraged his players to breathe and inflect, urging them to "sing," but his lyricism was often set off by intense, even feral drama. Walter's rubatosometimes meticulously worked out, sometimes the result of sudden inspirationcould produce revelatory effects, and his attention to Mahler's counterpoint helped him to bring out motives in danger of being buried in those huge scores. His is not the only way to conduct Mahler, but at his best, Walter could give us the feeling of hearing a work for the first time. Walter's first performances in New York were, perhaps surprisingly, not with the Philharmonic but with Walter Damrosch's Symphony Society. On his first trip to the United States in 1923, Walter played it safe and included no Mahler on the programs. If that seems like cowardice on his part, we would do well to recall some of the unkind criticisms leveled at Mahler's symphonies when Mahler himself conducted them in New York. Even in Europe, the symphonies often received only coolly qualified praise. In any case, at his second guest appearance with the Symphony Society, in 1924, Walter ventured to offer the public Mahler's First Symphonya fairly accessible work. Nevertheless, some New York critics made their hostility to the Symphony abundantly clear. The reviewer for the Musical Courier, in an extraordinarily condescending notice, had anticipated the argument that audiences needed plenty of time to familiarize themselves with new music and responded accordingly. "Some people, Mahler adherents, argue that it takes time for a great work to become known," the critic wrote. "Perhaps. But when one stops to think of the other works written about the same time that have become favorites, the argument fails to convince. . . . Whatever the reason that Mahler is not oftener played, it is not a matter merely of time. 203

Lack of ideas seems to explain it, and perhaps also excessive length, which will kill any work, however beautiful." Another New York critic lauded Walter's conducting from his earliest American concerts onward, while loathing Mahler's music to the very end. Already a veteran reviewer in Boston, Olin Downes came to New York in 1924 to write for The New York Times. His invectives against Mahler's music continued long after the other critics had discovered that acceptance of Mahler's music was indeed "a matter merely of time." The New York Philharmonic first played under Walter's baton in 1932; by then the conductor was determined to keep Mahler in the Orchestra's repertoire. He offered the Fifth Symphony this time, and Downes's review was astonishingly headlined, "Walter Triumphs in Mahler." The "triumph," however, referred to Walter's performance of Schubert's "Unfinished," the other work on the program, not to Mahler at all. But Mahler's symphony was hardly neglected in the review. Downes anatomized it at great length, his abuse increasing with each new paragraph. Mahler's "musical ideas, in nine cases out of ten," he wrote, "are banal, and they do not fructify. They do not develop, exfoliate." Maddening words. Brilliant thematic development is, as listeners have long since come to appreciate, one of Mahler's outstanding compositional virtues. In 1933a grim year for Germany and its neighborsWalter offered the

hater like Downes, couldn't refrain from remarking that, while the conception of the piece was "moving and immense," the composer lacked "a musical imagination commensurate with his visions, his ecstasies, his aspirations." Das Lied, with Maria Olszewska and Frederick Jagel, was among Walter's musical offerings to New York in 1934, and for this work, at least, the critics showed some signs of relenting. Downes grudgingly acknowledged the expressive depth of the final pages of the "Abschied" ("among the most genuinely poetical and distinguished passages in all Mahler"), while Gilman now referred to "the passion and beauty of the music, its delicate fantasy, its secret ecstasies and insuperable grief, and, at the last, its mystical, assuaging peace," which, under Walter, "were often overmastering." Commitments in Vienna and elsewhere kept Walter away from New York for several years, but the spread of the Nazi plague in the late 1930s eventually drove him back to the United States. He resumed his work with the New York Philharmonic in 1941, offering performances of Mahler almost every season until 1957, when a heart attack slowed down his concert appearances. The works by Mahler that he performed most often were the First, the Second, the Fourth, and Das Lied, though in 1945 he presented a work never before played by the Philharmonica work he had premiered in Vienna. Some resistance to the Ninth Symphony was inevitable, yet it still comes as a shock to read Olin Downes's excoriating review of the Philharmonic's first performance of this sublime work: "There is a degree of ostentation in this music which would be funny if it were not so vulgar. There are the prevalent megalomania and blatant rhetoric of the romantic decadence, wherein the faults are exaggerated to the point of the grotesque." And so on. But others recognized that this was a major musical statement; "there is so much impassioned music in its hour and twenty minutes," Irving Kolodin observed, "that unfamiliarity with it leaves a definite gap in one's orientation to music of this century."
207

"Resurrection" to New York. The performance, which Victor had agreed to record, should have been preserved as Walter's first album with the Philharmonic, but for some reason, a recording was never issued. After the concert, Walter noted with pleasure the "enthusiasm and emotion" that Mahler's Second had generated in the audience; the reviews, however, were again mixed. The performance won accolades, but the piece itself suffered some harsh
206

criticism. Lawrence Gilman of the New York Herald Tribune, though not a rabid Mahler

Walter was Musical Advisor to the New York Philharmonic for two seasons (1947-49), and during that time Dimitri Mitropoulos led two important Mahler performances. Already in the early 1920s, during his student days in Berlin, Mitropoulos had deeply admired Walter's interpretations, and Walter, for his part, wrote in 1948 that Mitropoulos's "activity" was, "by its great artistic and moral meaning, a necessity in the musical life of New York." Nevertheless, their mutual affection for Mahler sometimes led to awkward moments, as when Mitropoulos gave the first American performance of Mahler's Sixth in 1947. While delighted that his younger colleague had scheduled the Sixth, Walter harbored serious doubts about the other piece to appear on the program, Gershwin's Piano Concerto, with Oscar Levant as soloist. " . . . I strongly must plead against the combination of this work with Mahler's Sixth Symphony in one program," Walter wrote to Bruno Zirato. "On the list of works which Mr. Mitropoulos has chosen, I see many pieces which go far better with Gershwin than just Mahler's most tragic opus. . . ." The Gershwin Concerto remained on the program and, to Mitropoulos's bitter disappointment, was one of the pieces that replaced Mahler's Symphony on the Sunday broadcast. In 1948, Mitropoulos conducted the Seventh Symphony, a work that hadn't been heard in New York since Mengelberg's performance in 1923. After hearing that Mitropoulos wanted to place Mahler's Seventh on the second half of the program, to allow those who didn't care for Mahler to flee the auditorium, Walter asked Zirato to tell Mitropoulos that he had "the opposite policy, putting the problematic work in the middle of the program and leaving the conclusion to the soloist, thus compelling the audience to stay and listen to the work in question." Doing so, incidentally, would have entailed the unpleasant task of requesting the 208 soloist to perform after the audience had heard more than an hour's worth of Mahler.

One of the ugliest clashes between the two conductors occurred in 1949, when both had planned to conduct Mahler's First during the 1949-50 season. On learning that Mitropoulos had scheduled the work, Walter turned livid. "I cannot help expressing my great astonishment at Mr. Mitropoulos' intention to perform Mahler's First symphony in the same season as I am going to do it," he wrote to Zirato. "I want you to be sure that I would not have dreamed of preceding any work on Mr. Mitropoulos' program with a performance of the same one in one of my concerts during the time of my activity as musical adviser. . . . Mr. Mitropoulos will understand my attitude with regard to Mahler and that it is important for me to play this work." It was important for Mitropoulos, too, of course. But this time Walter had his way. At his last public appearance with the New York Philharmonic, in 1960, Walter performed Das Lied von der Erde, with Maureen Forrester and Richard Lewis as his soloists. He had given the world premiere and had performed it on many subsequent occasions. (The young Leonard Bernstein, on his drive to Boston, tuned in to the 1948 broadcast of Das Lied with Ferrier and Svanholm; he wrote to Walter afterwards: "It was certainly one of the great musical experiences I have had. You are a very, very great master. And the Manfred brought back vivid memories of 1943, and that fateful Sunday!"that is, the performance when Walter fell ill and Bernstein suddenly found himself conducting his New York Philharmonic debut.) By 1960, the reviews were uniformly glowing. Walter's concert ended the first Mahler Festival by the Orchestra itself a sign that Mahler had won over the cityand the "Abschied," with a poignant aptness, became Walter's own farewell to the New York Philharmonic.

Erik Ryding produced the premiere recording of Walter's Violin Sonata, performed by the Orfeo Duo, for VAI Audio. With Rebecca Pechefsky he is writing a biography of Walter for Schirmer Books. 209

Mitropoulos, Walter, and Mahler:

A Player's Perspective
by JAMES CHAMBERS

W
210

hen Dimitri Mitropoulos strode onto the stage of Carnegie Hall to begin the first rehearsal of Mahler's Fifth Symphony on the morning of December 28, 1959, there was palpable excitement in the Orchestra. It 13 years since Bruno Walter had led the New York

had been

Philharmonic in highly acclaimed performances of this massive work. An excellent recording had been made at that time, one which had won a critics' award for Best Classical Recording of the Year (1947) and was reissued in LP format in 1952. Many in the Orchestra,

First-desk players of the New York Philharmonic brass section, circa 1958: (left to right) James Chambers and Joseph Singer, horns; Edward Herman, Jr., trombone; William Vacchiano, trumpet; William Bell, tuba.

and presumably many members of the audiences that were to hear the four performances later in the week, remembered Bruno Walter's interpretation from those earlier performances or had become familiar with it through the recording. Would these Mitropoulos performances measure up to the memorable ones of Bruno Walter? Could they possibly equal their well-remembered warmth and grandeur or have their stamp of authenticity? Even the musicians of the Orchestra were unable to assess the full impact until the first of the four performances had ended. By the close of the last, audiences and musicians alike were aware that another high point had been reached in the unfolding history of Mahler performances at the Philharmonic. The Fifth Symphony did not receive a complete Philharmonic performance until it was programmed by Willem Mengelberg in December 1926 and repeated during the following season. (Josef Stransky had offered only the first movement, Trauermarsch, in November 1911, as a memorial trib ute to Mahler.) Bruno Walter, Mahler's friend, disciple, and fervent champion, conducted the Fifth Symphony for the first time with the Philharmonic during his initial appearances as a guest conductor in 1932. Except for a pair of performances of the Adagietto under John Barbirolli in October 1939, the Fifth Symphony was not heard again by Philharmonic audiences until Bruno Walter conducted it in 1947. I myself was then a fledgling member of the Orchestra, and I reveled in my first exposure to this complex work as revealed by Walter. He stressed the lyric elements of the Symphony to a much greater degree than did the great Mahler conductor who followed him. His continual pleas for beautiful sound ("I am not happydo what you can for this place"), his attention to dynamics ("Gentlemen, give me my diminuendo"), and

notable for their tonal beauty and lyric grace. Clearly Walter wished to emphasize the broad, flowing lines of the work and was not solely intent on strict adherence to Mahler's many detailed indications concerning dynamics and tempo. Mahler's tempo markings are very elaborate and specific; for example, pltzlich schneller, leidenschaftlich, sehr vehement, wild ("suddenly fastet," "passionate," "very vehement," "wild"). Often, as in the Fifth, they were an indication not only of tempo but of the style and character of a particular passage. In addition, his scores contain many emphatic footnotes addressed to the conductor concerning the best method of achieving the desired effect. For example, in the Funeral March Mahler exhorts the conductor to insist that the violins play loudly and forcefully throughout a particularly boisterous passage lest they be lost beneath the high level of sound emanating from the entire orchestra. Walter's de-emphasis of these rather detailed instructions tended to soften some of the unique effects which, when strictly enforced, lend a neurotic quality to much of Mahler's writing. Mitropoulos was also a dedicated Mahlerite and brought with him a background of other memorable Mahler performances. There was, for example, his ground-breaking recording of the First Symphony with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1940, and additional performances of the First with the New York Philharmonic in 1941 and with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Robin Hood Dell in 1944. As the solo horn player of the Philadelphia Orchestra at that time, I was fascinated, indeed almost mesmerized, by the raw intensity and passion of Mitropoulos's interpretation. I'm afraid, however, that Philadelphia audiences in the hot, mosquito-filled, oppressive atmosphere of Robin Hood Dell were not then as receptive to this unaccustomed summer fare of Mahler's music as they would be today. I remember also the exciting American premiere of Mahler's Sixth Symphony by the 213

212

his singing style ("Gentlemen, there is not enough zinging in") brought forth performances

Philharmonic under Mitropoulos in 1947. In the collective memory of members of the Philharmonic, those performances of the Sixth loom large. The work had a lightening-bolt impact on the Orchestraand on audiences as well. There was a remarkable conformity in style between composer and conductor, and it was against this background of notable Mahler performances that Mitropoulos's reading of the Fifth was anticipated with such eagerness when it was announced that it would be on the inaugural program of the Philharmonic's now historic Mahler Festival in the 1959-60 season. Subsequent concerts in the festival were to include Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3, 9, 10 (Adagio), Das Lied von der Erde, Kindertotenlieder, and various songs. The sense of anticipation and excitement during Mitropoulos's rehearsals of the Fifth carried over into the performances so strongly that those who experienced them will never forget their intensity and fervor. As a Philharmonic player, I had found virtually all of Mitropoulos's interpretations, in any repertoire, to be imbued with a strong sense of drama and vivid theatrical awareness. Nowhere was this more evident than in his Mahler. His proclivity for making a musical point by overstatement fitted rather neatly into Mahler's frequent and abrupt changes of mood, dynamics, tempo, and so on. Mahler was particularly fond of marking tempo changes by preceding them with the work pltzlich ("sudden") and, similarly, of making sudden changes of dynamics without any intermediate crescendo or diminuendo. Mitropoulos delighted in

Dimitri Mitropoulos, Musical Director of the New York Philharmonic from 1950 to 1958,

214

during a 1950 rehearsal.

these abrupt changes and spent much rehearsal time in preparing such places for maximum effect. A master of the art of subito, he strove to emphasize all these shifts so that their delib erate nature would be made evident to the listener. This was in sharp contrast with Bruno Walter's somewhat more genial approach, in which the lyric flow of the music rather than its changing character had been stressed. Mitropoulos, with his tendency to exalt the details of a particular passage, was nor reticent about interpreting some sections of militaristic march music with brute severity or, on the other hand, highlighting or even exaggerating sentimental passages. Mitropoulos worked quite hard during rehearsals to achieve the quality of performance expected of the New York Philharmonic. Rehearsals were often extremely exciting but they could be extremely trying as well, for Mitropoulos was not an acknowledged master of con ducting technique. Often, he used his hands to express the emotional content of slow, expressive music, with only slight regard for maintaining a well-defined rhythmic pulse. Pizzicatos were always a hazard! As a wind player, I often marveled at the ability of the string sections to play them together when he was conducting. Mitropoulos's attention was often focused on other details of phrasing, such as dynamic shadings or expressive rubatos, and, consequently, in such places he occasionally failed to provide that most important requirement for precise ensemblea clear, explicit beat. Frustration was sometimes felt in orchestra and conductor alike, and much rehearsal time was spent bringing such passages to a state of concert readiness. On the other hand, in faster, more energetic music which had strong, rhythmic vitality, Mitropoulos was a master with few equals. His rhythm was unshakable even in music of terrifying complexity. Passages with rapidly changing meters 216 posed no problems for him and, indeed, stimulated him to the point where his excitement

was transmitted to the Orchestra, which then became as a single performer with him. The thrust that developed was awesome. Mitropoulos loved the sound of horns and would frequently implore the horn section to play more loudly. There were times when it seemed to the players that a louder level would force the tone to the point of ugliness. Naturally, they did not wish to distort the tone, but endeavored nonetheless to provide Mitropoulos with the level of volume he asked for. One morning Mitropoulos began a rehearsal with a short speech directed to the horn section, approximately as follows: "I must apologize to the horns. [Puzzled laughter from the Orchestra.] No, I am serious. I am always asking them to play more, but some good friends, whose opinions I respect, tell me that the horns are often too loud. So, horns, if I ask for more please don't do it. [More laughter.] I really mean it. I know I will get excited and ask for more, but you must resist." What an impossible assignment! We all made a great effort to comply, but it is very difficult to deny the impassioned pleas of a conductor who in the excitement of performance has forgotten his own admonition. Mitropoulos, on the podium, might almost have represented the embodiment of Mahler's spirit. Indeed, there were striking similarities in their natures. Both men were totally absorbed in their art, with little attention or interest given to facets of life dear to most others. Both were men of spirit who sought the deeper meanings of life. Both were religious menbut in the last analysis, their religion was music.

James Chambers (d. 1989) was Principal Horn of the New York Philharmonic from 1946 to 1969 and served as the Orchestra's Personnel Manager from 1969 to 1986. This essay first appeared in the Philharmonic's special edition Radiothon Record, 1981. 217

Israel?); from tongue-in-cheek verse ("O Dryden is dry / Auden is odd . . .") to high-flown poetry ("Bough-armed in the dark we lie / Craving the down-rush, in-spring, out-cry . . . " ) .

Bernstein's Late-Night Thoughts on Mahler

by JACK GOTTLIEB

"here are anagrammatic word games, lists, gestating ideas about works-in-progress, political statements (". . . I want everyone to live, and live undeformed, well-fed, unpoisoned . . . " ) , epigrams ("I am thinking: 'I am thinking'"), autobiographical irony ("Whaddya get from a cigarette . . . What's the answer? Cancer."). If books were the target of his jottings, it was inconceivable that Bernstein could resist the flyleaves, as well as the interior pages, of his conducting scores. Now stored in the archives of the New York Philharmonic, these offer a cornucopia of insights for musical laypersons and scholars alike. As with the books, they reveal Bernstein's comedic and erudite gifts. The meticulously inscribed scores, mostly in red and blue pencil, provide a vivid window into the working mind of the conductor. Red markings were directives to librarians to copy into parts; blue ones were aide-memoires for the conductor, some of which also went into parts. If there as a change of mind or subsequent additions, Bernstein brought attention to them by putting red X in the margin; once incorporated into the parts, these would be circled in blue.

L
218

But there is much more. Two-bar phrases are indicated by a pyramid-shaped mark, three-bar eonard Bernstein regarded the flyleaves of the books he read as blank canvases for poetry, musings, and other annotations. Appraising V. S. Pritchett's tales On the Edge of the Cliff, Bernstein writes: "I do admire people who have the patience to be in a Pritchett story. . . ." Or, on an edition of King Lear. "L's 'mid-life crisis phrases by a curve (a practice learned from Koussevitzky), six-bar phrases are indicated by a 5 in the penultimate bar linked with a flourish to a 6 in the last (groupings essential to grasping the formal structure); long and short slashes show subdivisions of the beat; Germanic-style abbreviations are used for entrancesfor example, K for clarinets (Klarinetten), P for Trombones Posaunen), so as not to confuse a C with Contrabassoon or a T for Trumpetsplus various other symbols (wavy lines, arrows) for new entrances, changes in articulation, dynamics, divisis, bowings (!), and so on: in other words, the full arsenal of tools fashioned by a master maestro. 219

occurs at age 80. Hence, paranoia, need to be loved (bottomless well) and to have love

constantly proven visibly and orally. . . ." But often the flyleaf comments are not related to the book on hand. They are, instead, aperus that range from the philosophical (the aesthetics of a pet dog's lifted paw) to the practical (which assistant conductor to choose for

It is Bernstein's Mahler Symphonic Partituren that engage us here, and they are a godsend. After all, both men were composer-conductors of the N e w York Philharmonic, both faith-seekers who sought and thought on a large scale. T h e following selected ruminations by Bernstein on the Mahler scores must be regarded as spur-of-the-moment jottings. T h e author certainly would have scrupulously edited such spontaneous outpourings for publication. T h e following passages are almost verbatim transcriptions, though abbreviations have been expanded, translations provided, and minor adjustments made for the sake of clarity.

A visual kind of pun is established when Bernstein signals for the chorus to stand on Mahler's verse:

Was vergangen, auferstehen! ("All that perished, rise again!" page 195)

Symphony No. 4, flyleaf

T h e flyleaf is dated J u n e 3 0 , 1 9 8 7 , and Bernstein dashes off a musical ditty with underlaid words:

Symphony No. 2, page 185

Mahler's tide for the Finale: Grosse Appell ( "The Roll-Call" or "The Call to Judgment") is irresistible fodder for Bernstein, who writes below it:

We didn't sell out in Oslo, We didn't sell out the h a l l . . . Etc.

Big Apple
(Incidentally, the often irreverent puns that musicians sometimes write into their parts about each other, the music, and the conductor could, at the least, qualify for a series of 220 internet joke lists.)

It never was wise to inform Bernstein before a performance on those rare occasions that there was not a full house. Sometimes, as in the Oslo program, on tour with the Concertgebouw in Europe, he could joke about it, but with a tinge of bitterness. (Researchers will be fascinated by the markings, in green and red ink, in one of Bernstein's non-conducting copies of the Fourth Symphony; the markingsadded by 221

Universal

Edition,

the publisherrecord Mahler's own orchestral

revisions. Another

Mahler:

opera

symphonica. finale

(#6

most

operatic

of all, hammer.

perhaps . . .).

because purely Basic elements LisztResult:

intriguing set of revisions may be observed on the score of the First Symphony, which includes a copyist's paste-ups, with carefully drawn-in staves and notes.)

instrumental; yet (including clichs)

resembles #2 (recitative, music

of German

(Mozart-Schubert;

Beethoven-Brahms;

Wagner; also Italian opera,

etc.?) driven

to their furious ultimate power.

Symphony No. 5, flyleaf

Rage-hostility. I. Angry Sublimation bitter by Mahler and hearer. sorrow mixed with sad comforting lullabies

neurotic intensity,

irony,

extreme sentimentalism, despair (that it can't go even further), "upbeat"],

apocalyptic radiance, shuddering silence, vokanic Auftaken [sic; Auftakt = gasping Luftpausen ["breathingspots"], and tonic), ritards stretched to

titanic accents achieved by every means (sonic dynamics over-refined and

near-motionlessness,

rocking a corpse. II. Outburst of ragemore """"public" version of private feelings in 1. Ends with teeth still clenched, marches). ball. despite occasional hints of ultimate glory and

exaggerated to a point of neurasthenia, marches like a heart attack, old-fashioned 4-bar phrases punctuated in brass and fire, cadences that bless like the moment when an excruciating pain suddenly ceases.

salvation (choral,

III. To hell with itlets get drunkA

The operatic Mahler: obviously so.

Lieder origins, dramatic structure.

Curtain-raising

preludes, interludes, magnitude, intensity, vocality,

Theatre, climaxes, etc.

Symphony No. 6
Taped across the first two pages of the score, in bold colors, we find a b u m p e r sticker:

Pagliacci Traviata (#6), Aida (#2) Tristan berall.

MAHLER GROOVES

Alas, Das Lied not here: the commentary on all 9 symphonies (Footnote re #10).

Since strings and percussion are playing lower d o w n the first page, only e m p t y bars arc covered u p . A light t o u c h , to be sure; b u t there on the flyleaf, Bernstein's m o r e p r o f o u n d and 222 private observations n o w can be shared with us:

On page 12, u p p e r left corner: From into here on: the fabric major/minor alternation of the harmony becomes harmonically as common usage, thematic, like integrated etc. 223

tonic/subdominant,

On the reverse side:

I. Death of tenderness and tonality II. Death of simplicity (innocence) III. Death of society IV. Letting go (death of resistance, clinging to life) On page 175: Bernstein points out a self-quotation by Mahler from his 8th Symphony: "Mutter! Jungfrau!" [the Virgin Mary].

Symphony No. 9, flyleaf

On the rear flyleaf the conductor writes out in long hand all the Mahlerian printed tempo The refined beauties of ambiguity. instructions: Adagissimo, langsam, zgernd, asserst langsam, ritard. These outer extremes of slowness are seriously taken to heart by Bernstein, who writes on the last page: The obsessiveness of artistic creation. (How many Lndler, Wagnerian adagios, selfquotes, funeral "Kondukts" [i.e., corteges] can one man produce?). Obsessiveness caused by urge to produce the perfect form ofhis "vision." If he had lived, he might have tried 9 more times. 224 225

Have the courage to remain in 8!

The lapidary precision of Bernstein's markings reveals his keen eye for detail, which inevitably overflowed into keen listening experiences. He labored endless hours in preparation; and the remarkably glossed conducting scores Bernstein has left behind are a treasure-trove for future generations to dip into, to benefit therefrom, and to be healed by the sheer beauty of his calligraphy.

1998

by Jack Bernstein's Inc.

Gottlieb quotations 1998, the Estate of Leonard Bernstein. Used by permission

Leonard

of Amberson,

Composer-author Jack when recorded concerts, Hall! He Bernstein the

Gottlieb Music

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Leonard

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Jewish

(How Yiddish Songs a n d S y n a g o g u e M e l o d i e s Influenced A m e r i c a n Popular M u s i c ) .

Above: Leonard Bernstein in Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center.

226

Overleaf: Leonard Bernstein's conducting score for Mahler's Symphony No. 6.

227

Mahler at the New York Philharmonic:

The Players Remember

Interviews by ROBERT SHERMAN "Mahler was our composer-in-residence for the last 90 years."
Rainier de Intinis, horn, 1950-93

felt the Mahler lineage very much. It was as though it was our music, and Mahler our

composer in residence for the last 90 years. There is fiery emotion deep in Mahler's music. It doesn't require overblown emotion from

the conductor. My favorites were Mitropoulos, who had such understanding of Mahler and a wonderful freedom of dialogue, and Walter, whose straightforward, down-the-line honesty seemed to me more like what Mahler himself would have wanted. It was beautifulnon

The players' locker room at Carnegie Hall; Ranier de Intinis 230 is pictured in the center, holding a suitcase.

episodic, the lines connected, he caught its full sweep. Boulez, too, was able to connect the various episodes. Many conductors go through a theme, drop away, then come back with another theme; Mitropoulos, Walter, and Boulez all maintained a good, continuous line throughout.

He couldn't sleep nightson the road he kept the manager up half the night walking around with himand he was always afraid of dying.

"Walter was always carried away in Mahler's music." "I was in at the beginning."
David Kates, viola, 1933-76 William Vacchiano, trumpet, 1935-73

lmost every orchestra that comes through New York includes a Mahler Symphony. But I feel very proud and happy that I was in at the beginning, because Mahler was not at

runo Walter had a wonderful relationship with Mahler's music, and he was always carried away when he conducted it. He was a very quiet fellow offstage, but when it came

to the climaxes in Mahler, he was shaking and shivering and trembling; his whole body was moving in ecstasy. At rehearsals, he always kept asking the Orchestra to be quiet. If he was

all well known when I joined the Philharmonic in 1935. It was Bruno Walter who set the pace. In fact, every conductor who does Mahler today has Walter to thank. We played mostly standard pieces in those daysBeethoven and Mozart with half an orchestraand all of a sudden, Mahler comes in, and it was like going from a tea party to a tempest. That tremendous orchestra, with double trumpet section and double horns and so onit was really thrilling. As time goes on, things change, but Walter started it all. He was very quiet in personwe used to call him "The Pope," because he walked on so slowlybut when he conducted he had a lot of fire. Walter had the right temperament for Mahler. I think he is responsible for the Mahler era. He certainly contributed more to it than anybody else until Lenny. Nobody compares with him. I was 22 years old when I joined the Philharmonic, but many of the other players had actually played under Mahler. Mahler, of course, was not nearly so important then as he is now, so they didn't talk about him too much. But they did tell me that he was very strict and 232 somewhat sarcastic too. The players also told me that Mahler had many emotional problems.

working with one section, and other players were whispering or talking, he'd turn to them, with a little twist of his right hand and his finger pointed upwards, as though he were giving a lecture, and say, "Gentlemen, give me my silence." I once drew a little caricature in my folder: It was a gravestone, with the words, "Here Lies Bruno Walter: Give Me My Silence."

"You can't be glued to the page in Mahler."

Glenn Dicterow, concertmaster, 1980-

ehta was tremendously special in Mahler. He allowed himself the freedom to mold the Orchestra much more so than he did with other composers. The difference in inter-

pretation between him and Lenny was like night and day, but both were very rewarding. Zubin managed to translate the music a little bit more exactly, to be a little more focussed than Lenny.

You had be in a proper frame of mind to appreciate Lenny because it was so exuberant and so

233

exaggerated, [even though] he managed to make it work. Zubin was amazing so far as getting the job done. He approached the music very broadly, yet made it extremely exciting. I think Mahler takes a lot more freedom of thought; you can't be glued to the page, you can't be myopic in your approach. When you listen to the old Walter recordings, which are astounding in certain respects, they seem to have very conservative tempos, to be classically put together. Where Zubin would be stretching tempos, exaggerating nuances, Walter was a lot more straightforward. I think you have to be less concerned with authenticity when you bring such monstrous works to the stage, and Bernstein and Mehta did a far more convincing job than I get from the older recordings. After all, the further we get from the age of Mahler, the less strict you need to be. It's the same way with Bach. Zubin and Lenny weren't afraid to take chances, to exaggerate things, to highlight the characteristics of what Mahler was trying to say. The first time I played Mahler under Lenny, the orchestral sound was magicthe first few bars, incredibly together, with such depth and intensity. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. You need a larger-than-life personality to bring Mahler across, because the music's so free and open.

he identified with the type of inner torture that comes through in Mahler's music. Walter was very meticulous about the way he approached Mahler, in terms of adhering specifically to the markings, and always keeping within certain parameters. I appreciated that restraint; his Mahler was never overblown. Mitropoulos was more Bernstein-like, very emotional, but the marvel was his memory. No matter how long the work was, he never used a score, and would pull things out of his head". . . 13 measures before letter R, where the oboe takes the lead . . ."and sure enough he would be right there.

"I enjoy listening to M a h l e r m u c h m o r e t h a n I did playing it."

Paige Brook, flute, 1952-88

ubelik was one of my favoritesone of the few conductors who felt that the composer was more important than he was. At the time, Mahler was not one of my favorites,

but I came to love [the music] more the longer I stayed in the Orchestra. Some conductors are very good when there's a lot of traffic, and Mitropoulos was like that. So often in Mahler, it's like an intersection with ten roads coming in, and he could steer us through beautifully.

" W e d i d feel t h a t w e h a d b e c o m e M a h l e r s p e c i a l i s t s o f a s o r t . "

Mehta also had a really clear stick technique, and that's needed in Mahler. I enjoy listening to Mahler much more than I did playing it. The music is too schizophrenic for me: Mahler gets going in a beautiful fashion, then abruptly veers off on another tangent. It's better when I don't have to worry about counting, ensemble intonation, and other craftsmanship details. In the Orchestra I couldn't really listen to the music as a whole: From my seat, the brass was a mile way, the violas right in front, so that's the way we heard it. 235

Nathan Stutch, cello, 1946-89

W
234

e played an enormous amount of Mahler over the years because of Bernstein, so we had an affinity for the music. After playing so many performances with so many dif-

ferent conductors, we did feel that we had become specialists of a sort. Bruno Walter's approach was more reserved, with an almost painful quality, as though

"Barbirolli did Mahler beautifully, with guts and lots of feeling."

Albert Goltzer, oboe, 1938-84

enny was fantastic, even if you didn't agree with his conducting technique. He had a feel for Mahler, no question about it. When we played Mahler with him the first time in Vienna,

the headline next day said "Mahler Comes Back to Vienna." Bruno Walter had a much milder approach, more pedantic. His personality was completely different from what I get out of Mahler's music. Mahler was evidently a very fiery, passionate guy, and Walter was low-key all the time. Mitropoulos was on the emotional side like Lenny, and he could bring out the feeling, the excitement of the music, the emotion that is so important a part of Mahler. His stick technique was not very goodhe'd give a downbeat with all five fingers rotatingbut in Mahler it didn't matter very much. Barbirolli was a wonderful guy and a marvelous musician. He did Mahler beautifully. It was almost English and Italian, as he was, so it had guts and lots of feeling.

"Mrs. Mahler sat in the third row at rehearsals."

Leonard Davis, viola, 1949-91 never experienced anything like the Second Symphony under Bruno Walter. We were in Carnegie Hall, and when the choral entrance came, from the back of the orchestra, I never heard anything like it in my life. You could just hear air moving, with sort of a pitch. It was the most unearthly experience you could imagine, and as it grew and grew and filled the hall Music Director Zubin Mehta in 1979, with Philip Smith, Principal Trumpet, and Glenn Dicterow, Concertmaster.

236

up to the ceiling. It was really spectacular.

237

It also was impressive to see Mrs. Mahler sitting in the third row at the rehearsals. Walter would go down to her at the breaks, and they had conferences and he wrote down notes for himself. If you listened carefully, you could hear the conversations in German: "Do you remember this, do you recall that?" She came very often to Mahler rehearsals. She was a very handsome-looking woman, as was Walter, even at an advanced age. It has stayed very vivid in my memory. Another striking memory is of Stokowski conducting Mahler's Eighth Symphony. I think it was his last performance with the Philharmonic before he officially left, and on Sunday afternoon we did the Eighth with the enormous chorus and brass players all over the hall, including three trumpets in the center of the top balcony. Stoki was not beyond showing his profile, hair, and hands to the audience, and towards the end, when everything was building to a tremendous climax with the chorus and the brasses in various parts of the hall, with a great flourish, he turned and with his left hand out, faced the trumpet players in the top balcony. Meanwhile, his right hand dragged itself across the score, and he turned several pages by mistake. We were within a minute or two of the end when he looked back at the score and tried to unravel the puzzle, turning the pages back and forth. He never really did find his place, but he continued making a big show of everything, and finished the Symphony by ear, as it were. It could have been a catastrophe, but we played it, and Stoki went on looking his best and put on a great act, and it was all very successful. The audience didn't know all this, of course, but up front in the string section we saw it clearly. I guess if you're going to get lost, you might as well choose a place where the orchestra can carry on by itself. 238 I remember Tennstedt being very fiery with Mahler, sort of a dragon when he got excit-

ed, frothing at the mouth and breathing steam. It was almost more of a celebration of excitement. It didn't happen in rehearsals, with all the stops and starts, but the momenturn of a concert let him build up a real head of steam. At least with Mahler you have enough room and time to expand. He was superactive, but he was an excellent musician, and I think he loved Mahler beyond anything else. That came through in the way he approached the orchestra. The players in the Philharmonic, and any other major league orchestra, give 100 percent without any prodding from the podium; in this case, even after we got up to full sail, he was up there asking us for that much more. I think a lot of that kind of super-conducting, the flailing of arms and so on, was simply his own enjoyment of the performance. It wasn't anything layered on, it was honest; that's how he felt it, and he just couldn't restrain himself.

"There's b e e n a r e v o l u t i o n i n t h e w a y M a h l e r i s d o n e . "

Jacques Margolies, violin, 1942-46; 1964-

enny was a good Mahler conductor and so was Tennstedt. The intensity could be exhausting, but they had a certain way of getting themselves so deeply into the music

that it came across to us. Bruno Walter was completely different, very laid back and relaxed. Walter, of course, was a protg of Mahler, and if that's the way Mahler wanted his symphonies done, there's been a revolution in the way they're done today, with that sheer intensity and drama. In fact, even the tempos were different. I guess people weren't quite so wild back then. Walter's pacing was very different from what we get today, yet it worked. 239

"This o r c h e s t r a treats M a h l e r in a special w a y . "

Mahler. What makes a great Mahler performance, actually, are not just the huge shifts of tempo or dynamics, but the slight ones, the small ritards, the little goings ahead. Anyone can

Thomas Stacy, English horn, 1972-

do a G.P.it's the nuances that are the more difficult challenge. It's really the chambermusic idea, the best performances are a give and a take. Physically it's draining, but the kind of concentration that one develops in this kind of huge work makes it very exciting. You're forever waiting for the next high point.

ecause of the closeness of the Philharmonic with Mahler, going back to when he was the Music Director here, we have a different approach to his music and probably play it bet-

ter any other orchestra. I say that immodestly, but I think we bring a little more flair to it, a better feeling for the stylewe convey certain rhythmic patterns in a particular way that other ensembles do not. It's almost inherent. When I first got here, I realized immediately that this orchestra treats Mahler in a special way. The two Mahler performances that stand out as the most memorable of my tenure in the Philharmonic were the Ninth Symphony with Boulez in the Cathedral at Chartresthere was something magical about hearing that music and viewing the interior architecture of the cathedraland Lenny's last Symphony No. 2 with us. Boulez is a great Mahler conductor, one reason being his plastic treatment of tempo changes, it's just mesmerizing. He doesn't make ritards just to prepare a new tempo, he molds everything in a wonderful and perfect-sounding way.

"Mahler's symphonies disturbed me for m a n y years."

Newton Mansfield, violin, 1 9 6 1 -

s a European, it was a disturbing experience for me to play Mahler for a long time. Mahler was emoting his own emotional instabilities, but also expressing the terrible

disease that would come to Germany between the two World Wars, the time when everything was sort of grotesque; nothing seemed quite clean. Mahler would take a simple, almost a baby melody, and by the time he got through with it, it had the smell of the cabaret, of decay, of something that wasn't quite right. The very type of emotional uproar that Mahler seems to go through formed a sort of parallel path to what Europe was undergoing. That's

"Mahler's nuances are the m o r e difficult challenges."

not true of everything, of coursethe pure music of the [Fifth Symphony's] Adagietto is a gembut many others of Mahler's symphonies were very haunting and disturbed me for

Stanley Drucker, clarinet, 1948-

many years. I was very drawn to Mahler, and yet very repulsed by him at the same time. The combination of my European background and what was happening in Germany at the time was very striking and very difficult to cope with. Now I am more separated from the experience, so playing Mahler is always a good expe241

240

itropoulos was another great Mahler conductor He was very flamboyant, he had

extremes in his approachgreat fortissimos, tiny pianissimos, huge crescendoshe did

everything larger than life. His intensity also seemed natural for all those sudden changes in

rience. I just love what Mahler does with the strings. He understands the strings, he understands the whole orchestra, perhaps because he was a conductor himself, and it seemed to have a great influence on the way he wrote. Many composers write great music that at the same time is totally out of place on the instrument for which it's written. Not in Mahler's case. Even in those wild passages where you have ten thousand notes, the effect is still applicable to the instruments involved.

One of Boulez's greatest assets was his ability to make it comfortable for us to play the most difficult material. You weren't in a sweat; you had everything explained clearly and dis passionately. It was easier playing for him since there wasn't that storm of emotion that you felt from other conductors who wanted more from you than you could give. Bernstein, for instance, really wanted your heart. He wanted you to feel exactly what he felt, which was tumultuous. Boulez was oriented towards clarity; he wanted you to hear every individual strand, and he controlled dynamics beautifully; he didn't allow anybody to overplay.

"Tennstedt and Kubelik were incredibly heated and emotional."

Orin O'Brien, double bass, 1966-

"Mahler's footprints are still within this orchestra's purview."

Joseph Robinson, oboe, 1977-

remember Tennstedt and Kubelik as being incredibly heated and emotional. They had a

concept and could convince you of it without words. I just adored Kubelik. His tempos

and pacing in the Seventh Symphony were just phenomenal. It's a very difficult symphony because of the changing tempos and moods, even within the Scherzo, but I remember that my emotional feeling was like being swirled into a maelstrom from beginning to end. The word I connect mostly to Tennstedt is honesty. He was very strong musically, but so physically fragile on the podium that we felt rather protective of him. Boulez was extremely clear and accurate, which is important since Mahler is so thickly orchestrated much of the time. He always had well-balanced choirs, you could hear every solo clearly, and he never allowed groups of instruments to overpower other groups. That clear balance was one of his hallmarks. He would even tune chordsthat is, have us play one note at a time in woodwinds and brass and so on, then tune carefully according to what the

ahler's Second at the Philharmonic's 10,000th concert was one of Mehta's high moments. I think it's one of the best performances I had anything to do with. It was

a great concert, and I'm glad it is being included in this set. The combination of Mahler, Mehta, and the occasion itself was very special. In an enterprise like ours, in terms of business-as-usual, there are people who reach their best level at different times, but every now and then it seems to happen simultaneously with enough people in prominent places playing over their heads. We turn each other on, and if that is sustained for a while, a kind of magic sets in that makes a performance really transcendent for those of us who are playing it. Another occasion like that was when Bernstein filled in for Tennstedt, and we did four concerts of Mahler's Second. At the dress rehearsal, a kind of incandescent quality happened immediately, so we didn't stop, we just played it through. The same kind of thing happened at the 10,000th concert. We feel a sense of greater importance on an important occasion or 243

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predominant harmony was.

w h e n the TV is on. It doesn't a l w a y s w o r k , b u t I t h o u g h t it really d i d that n i g h t . T h e P h i l h a r m o n i c w a s Mahler's orchestra. I really do believe that filial piety has a great deal to do w i t h the w a y o r g a n i s m s (like the P h i l h a r m o n i c ) perpetuate themselves. I never took a lesson w i t h H a r o l d G o m b e r g , b u t I've been t r e m e n d o u s l y influenced by the 35 years that he held the principal oboe post before m e a n d , in a way, my colleagues' expectations as well. Listeners m a y not hear H a r o l d G o m b e r g in my p l a y i n g , b u t there's still a k i n d of intention to be m o r e d r a m a t i c , to p l a y through a bigger range of s o u n d a n d a w i d e r s p e c t r u m of characterization. All of that is really a legacy. You know, H a r o l d Gomberg's m a r k s are all over the parts I play, a n d s o m e t i m e s it's a v e r y personal thing. In the Adagietto of the Fifth S y m p h o n y , he d r e w a little face w i t h a k i n d of c r y i n g expression, a n d tears falling off, a n d it says "Farewell, H.G., m a y G o d be w i t h y o u . " A n d it's a v e r y t o u c h i n g thing. He d a t e d it, the last performance of M a h l e r ' s Fifth he w o u l d ever play. N o t o n l y have I entered Gomberg's e n v i r o n m e n t , but I have g a i n e d a sense of my colleagues' expectations about w h a t g o o d oboe p l a y i n g is. In the s a m e way, Phil S m i t h k n o w s h o w Bill Vacchiano p l a y e d the t r u m p e t , a n d I'll g u a r a n t e e y o u that Phil M y e r s has heard every note that J i m m y C h a m b e r s ever recorded w i t h this orchestra. M a h l e r ' s footprints are still w i t h i n this orchestra's p u r v i e w . T h e r e are p e o p l e in the O r c h e s t r a w h o w e r e protgs o f p e o p l e w h o issued from that era. But b e y o n d s o m e direct l i n e a g e in that sense, it's m o r e that the O r c h e s t r a has a sense of c o n f i d e n c e a n d p r i d e in k n o w i n g the M a h l e r repertoire a n d style. I d e f i n i t e l y feel that it's my m u s i c .

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks:
Berlin Philharmonic, Helge Grnewald Boston S y m p h o n y Orchestra, Bridget Carr Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Brenda Nelson-Strauss, Frank Villella C i n c i n n a t i C o n s e r v a t o r y L i b r a r y , Paul Kauthman H o c h s c h u l e fr M u s i k u n d d a r s t e l l e n d e K u n s t , Vienna, Desmond Mark G e m e e n t e m u s e u m , T h e H a g u e , Frits Zwart T h e Kaplan Foundation, Gilbert Kaplan, Gail Ross Library of Congress, S a m Brylawski, Lawrence Applebaum Metropolitan Opera, R o b e r t Tuggle, John Pennino Musical America, S t e p h a n i e C h a l l e n e r The New York Times, L i n d a A m s t e r Philadelphia Orchestra, Darrin T Britting Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Hans Ferwerda Sony Music Manufacturing University of Missouri, Kansas City, Chuck Haddix T h e University o f Western Ontario, Lorraine Busby

S h i r l e y Han
Jerry Bruck Rohen Cohen

G e r a l d S . Fox B e r n h a r d Fritsch Alison M. John William Josephson Margaret Kane Benjamin D. Kerman Michaela Kurz Alan S. Fesitsky Lars L i n d h a l Ben Malkevitch Cynthia Meister Edward Reilly Teri Reyes Lawrence R o c k D e n n i s D. R o o n e y S. Stevens Sands Norman Schweikert

Steven Smolian Lady Valerie Solti Arthur Steinberg Allan Steckler D o n Tait Malcolm Walker Myles Watson Martin Williams David Wright 245

Robert station 244 and Manhattan

Sherman WQXR, School

has where of

been he

Program is he

Director Senior

and Executive Consultant. as a

Producer On

at

New

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classical-radio

Vienna Philharmonic, Clemens Hellsberg

currently has also

the faculty critic for

of The Juilliard School The New York Times.

Music,

served

music

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following generously granted permission for the production of this set: The musicians of the New York Philharmonic Local 802, AFM, William Moriarity, President American Federation of Musicians, Steve Young, President Chris Alexander Lady Evelyn Barbirolli Kathleen Battle Pierre Boulez Estate of Eugene Conley, Victor and Diana Lea The Kathleen Ferrier Awards Professor Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Maureen Forrester Estate of Rafael Kubelik, Elsie Kubelik Martha Lipton, Professor emeritus, Indiana University, Bloomington Mrs. George London Zubin Mehta Yvonne Minton The Estate of Dimitri Mitropoulos, James Dixon Prof. Wolfgang Schneiderhan for Irmgard Seefried For Sir Georg Solti: Music Production Inc. and The Decca Record Company Limited

(continued)

Estate of William Steinberg Estate of Leopold Stokowski Estate of Set Svanholm, with the kind permission of his children Inge Tennstedt and EMI Records Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Camilla Williams, Professor of Voice, Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington Frances Yeend Sources: New York Philharmonic Archives (Nos. 2, 3, 5, 7; Das Lied and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) Library of CongressVoice of America Collection (Nos. 1, 4, 9, and 10); Mortimer H. Frank (No. 1) Seth B. Winner (No. 6) Estate of Stephen TemmerBernhard Fritsch, Richard M. Kemmler (No. 8) John Pfeiffer Collectioncourtesy of Larry King, James Lum, Teri Noel Towe (No. 10: Purgatorio) Collection of Harold G. Colt, Jr. (Das Lied) Stan Ruttenberg and Arthur D. Cohen (William Malloch's "I Remember Mahler")

Copyright 246

1998,

The

Philharmonic-Symphony

Society

of

New

York,

Inc.