In response to my query regarding  a Straussian leap over Mahler and
Bruckner, Tim Mahon sings his own sinfonia domestica:

>Oddly enough, no!  Mahler she loathes with a passion only the underinformed
>can achieve

I teach 10th and 11th grade English.  I know with what authority she
speaks.  She will not be shaken or stirred.

>and Bruckner she decided to ignore as a result of my preview
>lecture that evening.

Did you not say the 4th was on the program? I've often thought it odd that
this is frequently everyone's introduction to Bruckner.  Was mine long ago.
Left me cold.  The Ormandy reading, I believe.

That reminds me.  I recently heard the Kabasta Bruckner 4th.  A fireball!
I seem to have contradicted myself.

>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,

He was an odd duck.  Can anyone elaborate on the tales of his supposed
fascintation with corpses?

>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....

I too have seen that light.  Long ago inspired by For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Now an English teacher.  Yes, perhaps it is time to follow that light.

>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.

I couldn't agree more.  I can go for years without listening to a
particular piece or composer, then suddenly binge on the same, wondering
how or why I neglected it for so long.  Mahler and Bruckner have been
figuring big in my listening time lately, though I am about to turn another
ear to Wagner, and I am no fan.  Who knows where that will take me.  At the
very least I figure it will be to hell and back,.  As long as I get back,
all is fine with me.  I like to travel.

One quick question.  Does anyone know if Knappersbusch performed any Mahler?

Best to all,

Thomas Heilman
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