Thought you all might be interested. Posted with permission of the author.
From: [log in to unmask] <Mitch Friedfeld>
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2000, 7:25 p.m.
Subject: [MAHLER-LIST] De La Grange at DC Wagner Society
Last night I had the pleasure of hearing Henry-Louis de La Grange
address the Wagner Society of Washington, D.C., in a lecture entitled
"Mahler: Disciple and Champion of Wagner." I took notes, and any
misstatements that follow are mine, not his. I haven't cross-checked
my notes with anything. I'll be repeating some material that is
familiar to listmembers, but I'm trying to give a flavor of the
lecture.
M. de La Grange started with the historical context. Forty-some
years after the death of Beethoven, his music had begun to be viewed
as limitations. Wagner, however, blazed new trails, freed music,
united the arts, and pointed the way to the future. But life in
Iglau, where Mahler was growing up, was far from what it was in
Vienna. There was no chance of hearing Wagner in such a backwater.
His music was known, though, and its influence was felt. When the
15-year-old Mahler played some compositions for a music professor,
GM's pieces were deemed "Wagnerian, and dangerously so."
After entering the Conservatory, Mahler joined the Wagnerverein.
There was competition as to who could promote the Wagnerian cause
best. One day Mahler managed to get close to Wagner, and, in a letter
quoted by M. de La Grange, regretted for the rest of his life that
he did not have the nerve to ask if he could help the great man on
with his overcoat. Mahler quit the Wagnerverein in 1881 when it took
a hard turn toward German nationalism and anti-Semitism.
While Mahler was not a student of Bruckner, he was a disciple. Of
the famous crowd -- Mahler, Krzyzhanovsky, Rott, and Wolf -- Rott
and Wolf paid the price for this allegiance to the Wagnerian AB.
Rott especially -- spurned by Brahms, he went insane and died as a
young man. Mahler, too, paid a price, and M. de La Grange recounted
the story of Brahms and Richter not awarding him the Beethoven Prize
for Das Klagende Lied. DKL had very Wagnerian influences, H-LDLG
said, and was considered too radical by the conservative jury.
Brahms, however, later warmed up to Mahler. Brahms was overwhelmed
by Mahler's conducting of Don Giovanni in Prague, and for the six
years up to his death in 1897 he spoke warmly of GM. De La Grange
pointed out that the feeling was not always mutual, and reprised GM's
remark about Brahms being (musically) a dwarf with a puny chest.
Further Wagner vignettes: Mahler had fallen in love with the daughter
of the Iglau postmaster. One of his courtship ploys was to recount
stories from the Ring. Mahler visited Bayreuth in 1883 (possibly
1884; M. De La Grange's use of the phrase "the following summer"
was, to me, chronologically ambiguous). "I will remember it for the
rest of my life," GM later wrote (to murmurs of approval from the DC
Wagner Society).
The six years Mahler spent in Hamburg were very important for him.
A major factor was support from Von Buelow, Cosima's husband. While
Von Buelow did support Mahler, M. de La Grange had the audience in
stitches when he told about Von Buelow's holding his ears when hearing
the piano version of M2/I. Von Buelow might have been ill and
susceptible to loud noise, H-LDLG speculated, but conceded that the
older German probably genuinely did not like the piece.
After Mahler rose to the top in Vienna, one of his major achievements
was his conducting -- and Roller's staging - - of the Ring. Mahler
insisted on performing Wagner without cuts, which won praise even
from Cosima. De La Grange: "For all committed Wagnerians, Mahler's
arrival was a true blessing." Wagner's son, Siegfried, was not so
lucky. Mahler performed one of his operas [with massive cuts, I seem
to recall; H-LDLG did not address that], but refused other works by
Wagner, Jr. Cosima did not relate. H-LDLG spent a lot of time on
Roller's staging of the Ring, as well as on the evolution of the
singers' costumes. While I was there for Mahler, I found this
fascinating too.
Other points: For H-LDLG, the 20th century began in 1897 with three
events: the death of Brahms, the Sezession movement, and Mahler's
appointment to the Vienna Court Opera. This is interesting to me
because I still carry my graduate school lessons with me: the 20th
century didn't start until Aug. 4, 1914. Well, I found it interesting,
anyway. M. de La Grange spoke for an hour, 45 minutes, and my
attention never flagged.
The question and answer session also brought a couple of interesting
points. One listener asked to what degree H- LDLG saw a Wagnerian
influence in the music of Mahler. To my surprise, H-LDLG said he
saw very little. The finale of M3, he said, could not have been
composed without Parsifal; he termed it a "post-Parsifal" composition.
And one person asked what H-LDLG said was the most frequently asked
question at his lectures: Why didn't Mahler write opera? His response:
Mahler's music was too personal for opera; it was too much a "first-
person music," a phrase I found very felicitous. I wanted to ask if
H-LDLG had any thoughts about the night that Hitler was overwhelmed
by a Mahler performance of Tristan, but I wasn't sure how that possibly
sensitive subject might be taken by the DC Wagner Society. So I
didn't.
I introduced myself to H-LDLG afterward as a member of the Mahler-List.
He responded enthusiastically about our List, noting that while it
takes a lot of time, he likes it a lot ("even when they talk about
marmots," he said). A Wagner Society member took our picture, which
I suppose will be mailed to me some day. I think I blinked.
It was a really enjoyable night, spent in the presence of one of the
greatest Mahlerians in the world, an extremely engaging speaker and
a most approachable person. M. de La Grange, if you make it this
far in this post after you return to Paris, thank you very much for
your lecture at the Wagner Society of Washington, D.C.
Mitch Friedfeld
Janice Rosen
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