Mitch Friedfeld wrote:

>The only Mahler performance attended by Hitler that is documented by
>Henry-Louis de La Grange took place on May 8,1906, in Vienna.  Mahler
>conducted Tristan.  As far as I know, there is no evidence that Hitler
>ever heard Mahler's music in live performance.  Can anyone refute that?

Brigitte Hamann's book _Hitler's Wien_, a standard work, offers testimony
by two of Hitler's friends saying that they attended Mahler performances
at the Vienna Hofoper in his company.  Both instances involved Mahler
_conducting _ Wagner, and not Mahler being performed.

The one dating, by Friend Rudolf Haeusler, is 1913.  The 1906 dating
cited by Mitch is more obliquely treated by Hamann.  According to her,
there 's a postcard sent by Hitler that seems to claim that he attended a
Hofoper performance of Tristan on May 6 (not May 8).  She also writes that
Hitler's friend August Kubizek in his memoirs claimed that he attended two
performances at the Hofoper with Hitler, one of these having been Tristan.
But; writes Hammann, neither Kubizek nor the Hofoper records give the name
of the conductor of this Tristan performance.  None the less, Kubizek wrote
that Hitler had "the greatest regard" for Mahler--as a propagator of the
Wagner tradition.

As for Mat's assertion that only Wagner exceeded Mahler in Hitler's esteem,
there are passages in Hamann's book that suggest that Lehar was the
(mature) Hitler's favorite, or at least most frequent, listen.

Denis Fodor