| Contents |
Part one. Memories. First meeting ; January, 1902 ; Marriage and life together ; Splendid isolation, 1903 ; Splendid isolation, 1904 ; Splendid isolation, 1905 ; Splendid isolation, 1906 ; Splendid isolation, 1907 ; Autumn, 1907 ; New world, 1907-1908 ; Summer, 1908 ; New world, 1909 ; Storms, 1910 ; Summer, 1910 ; Eighth Symphony, 12th September, 1910 ; Christmas, 1910 ; The end, 1911 -- Part two. Letters 1910-1910. |
| Abstract |
There is no doubt whatsoever that Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) is a composer whose hour has struck fortissimo. In 1946, when the late Alma Mahler's memoirs of her marriage were first published in English, in a truncated version, practically none of Mahler's music, save the First Symphony and one movement of the Fifth, was performed regularly. Today his popularity is on a scale with his ten massive symphonies. It is a propitious time, then, for publication of this much enlarged edition, with additional text, new illustrations, index, and almost seventy more letters. Donald Mitchell, the well-known Mahler authority, has added notes and comments (and a particularly valuable biographical list) which amplify, illuminate, and correct Alma Mahler's text. He has also contributed two long introductions which outline the history of Mahler appreciation since World War II and bring forward many fascinating and hitherto unknown facts of the composer's music. Alma Mahler's account of her nine-year marriage to a genius twice her age; her deep dedication to him and to his frantic task of composition in the face of the fatal deadline posed by his precarious health; the difficulties of coping with his total self-absorption; the tragedy which dogged them and was exorcised in his music - all make for one of the most illuminating and poignant documents in the history of the arts. The letters alone - intimate and newsy letters to Alma, letters from Richard Strauss, Pfitzner, Schoenberg, and many others - are essential reading for anyone concerned with Mahler and his music and, indeed, the very process of creation. |
