Richard Writes to Gustav

Synopsis

Although contemporaries, Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss were two very different human beings. Mahler was tormented by self-doubt and existential angst; Strauss was a placid soul, self-confident to the point of complacency. Still, Mahler and Strauss admired and conducted each other’s music, and their odd friendship is reflected in their published correspondence.

On today’s date in 1911, for example, on learning Mahler had been ill, but was recovering, Strauss wrote a gracious letter to his fellow composer-conductor:

“I learn with great pleasure that you are recovering from your long illness. Perhaps it might be a happy diversion for you during the melancholy hours of convalescence to know I plan to perform your Symphony No. 3 with the Royal Orchestra in Berlin next winter. It is an excellent orchestra. If you would like to conduct yourself, it would be my pleasure to hear your lovely work again under your own direction — much as I would like to conduct it myself. I would be glad to rehearse the orchestra for you, so you would have no trouble and only the pleasure of conducting.”

Sadly, Strauss was poorly-informed about Mahler’s recovery and the gravity of his illness. Mahler died seven days after Strauss penned the letter.

Music Played in Today’s Program

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): Symphony No. 3; London Symphony Orchestra; Jascha Horenstein, conductor; Unicorn 2006-7

On This Day

Births

• 1791 - Bohemian composer Jan Václav (Johann) Voríšek (Worzischek), in Vamberk

• 1855 - Russian composer Anatoly Liadov, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: April 29)

• 1888 - American popular song composer Irving Berlin (Isidore Balin) inTemun, Russia (Julian date: April 29)

• 1895 - American composer William Grant Still, in Woodville, Mississippi

• 1954 - Scottish composer Judith Weir, in Aberdeen

Deaths

• 1849 - German composer Otto Nicolai, 38, in Berlin

• 1916 - German composer, Max Reger, 43, in Leipzig

• 1947 - Swedish composer Ture Rangström, 62, in Stockholm

Premieres

• 1728 - Handel: opera Tolomeo, re d’Egitto (Julian date: April 30)

• 1917 - Busoni: opera Arlecchino (Harlequin) and Turandot in Zürich at the Stadttheater

• 1945 - Bernstein: Hashkiveinu (text from the Sabbath Evening Service) for Cantor, Choir and Organ, at Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City, by Cantor David Puttterman, Max Heffman conducting

• 1948 - Cowell: Hymn, Chorale and Fuguing Tune No. 8 for strings, at Florida State University Recital Hall by the School of Music Faculty String Quartet

• 1955 - Bliss: Violin Concerto, in London

• 1963 - William Grant Still: opera A Southern Interlude, by the University of Miami Opera. This opera was later revised as Highway 1, U.S.A.

• 1966 - Andrew Imbrie: Symphony No. 1, by the San Francisco Symphony

• 1981 - Andrew Lloyd-Webber: musical Cats (after T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats) in London at the New London Theatre. This enormously popular and long-running musical opened on Broadway on October 7, 1982.

• 1984 - John Harbison: Ulysses’ Bow, by the New Haven Symphony, Murry Sidlin conducting

• 1995 - John Adams: musical I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky at the Zellerbach Playhouse in Berkeley, California, with the Paul Dresher Ensemble conducted by Grant Gershon

• 2000 - Colin Matthews: Pluto, The Renewer (as a new contribution to Gustav Holst’s The Planets), in Manchester, by the Hallé Orchestra, Kent Nagano conducting

• 2002 - Kenneth Frazelle: Concerto for Chamber Orchestra, in Glendale, California, by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Jeffrey Kahane conducting