Also Spracht Thomas Heilman

>Just curious to know if she visited Gustav and Anton along the way.

Oddly enough, no!  Mahler she loathes with a passion only the underinformed
can achieve and Bruckner she decided to ignore as a result of my preview
lecture that evening.  I had started by saying that, as a little boy, I
wanted to be a composer rather than an astronaut or fighter pilot and that
Bruckner was my model.  As I got older, however, and discovered he probably
died a virgin at the age of 84, my attentions shifted to Strauss as a
possible mentor.  Now, of course, I have written precisely nothing musical
and am professing the miracle of born-again virginity....

Strauss, for me, remains one of the most important composers of all time,
let alone the century in which he did most of his creative work.  But I
still find it difficult to join in debates re.  "the best X or y" since,
for me at any rate, the individual composer or piece changes with time,
circumstance and the mood I'm in at the time.  And if you need a better
definition of subjectivity -- so do I!

Cheers -- and a Happy New Year to one and all

Tim Mahon
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