Frequent contributors to our Facebook page are members of the GMS UK North and Midlands Group. Please see our North and Midlands Page for their recent articles.
While developing our social media presence we have gained 800+ Facebook followers living in many parts of the globe.
GMS UK on Facebook - Share your stories - Find us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/TheGMSUK/
We like to hear what our Facebook followers have been up to. Some followers send an article to info@mahlersociety.org while others just send us a few words.
Simon Wallfisch, baritone
On our Facebook page we recently saw a post from English-German baritone Simon Wallfisch who captioned a photo with:
My great-grandfather Albert Coates conducting Vienna Phil in 1933. The concert master Arnold Rose’s daughter Alma Rose saved my grandmother’s life in Auschwitz in 1944. Albert’s grand-daughter married my father in 1978. Little did these men know….
Arnold Rose or Rosé (né Rosenblum) was married to Mahler’s sister Justine; their daughter Alma was Mahler’s niece.
How did Alma save the life of Simon’s grandmother, the cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch (now aged 98) in 1944? By recruiting Anita to the Girls’ Orchestra of Auschwitz. It was Anita’s skill as a performer that kept her alive.
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The View from New York
One of our Facebook followers from the Gustav Mahler Society of New York, Arlene Hathaway, tells us that Sir Simon Rattle is her favourite conductor. She comments on his total knowledge of the music, his understanding, passion, emotion and sensitivity, explaining that these combine to produce the perfect music, true to the composer’s writing.
Arlene goes on to say: “When I first heard him conduct Mahler's 2nd over 20 years ago, it changed my life and now that Lenny (Leonard Bernstein) is gone, in my mind and heart, Sir Simon takes first place”.
Arlene is very happy for us to quote her comments on the website, as she says: “I love to share my opinions and feelings about Sir Simon and Mahler”.
Many thanks Arlene, we hope you continue to follow us on Facebook!
One follower, Mark Walters, has been to see the film Maestro about Leonard Bernstein, the Mahler pioneer of the 1960s.
Mark told us: “Watched this yesterday. It was FANTASTIC. I enjoyed Maestro very much. I liked the Mahler Resurrection Symphony conclusion. Bradley Cooper as Bernstein was Amazing. I highly recommend the film.”
From the clip we saw of the finale, Bradley Cooper was certainly throwing himself around the podium!
Mark we can tell you, you are in good company. Many of us think the finale of Symphony no. 2 is stunning, whether live, on a recording, or on film.
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We have recently been informed by our Facebook page that Otto Klemperer and three other artists have released songs that we might be interested in.
Perhaps these are little known recordings of Otto singing in the bath?
We’ve checked online, but even the Internet doesn’t think it’s true!!
We were delighted to hear from a member of the Mahler family, who is the great, great grandson of Leopoldine Mahler, Gustav's sister.
Facebook follower Julian Mark Lowrie said after the Simon Rattle/LSO performance of Mahler 9 at the Proms:
“It was the first time I’ve heard the 9th and it was a simply wonderful experience with a brilliant orchestra and masterful conductor. You could here a pin drop as the audience was totally engaged! Definitely a fitting end to Rattle’s last LSO concert, he nailed it!”
The Times journalist Neil Fisher wrote: “… the music was left to do the talking … And it spoke with all the rapturous intensity that distinguishes Rattle’s finest performances.”
We can vouch for that, from watching the performance on TV three days later, when Rattle eschewed flamboyant gestures and, at times, used eyes, pursed lips or a slight nod to conduct.
Neil Fisher again, describing the 9th as a work presenting “… a challenging combination of bitterness, resignation and resolution …” adds: “… the surprise was how much light Rattle found to illuminate the way.”
A big thank you to Facebook follower Julian for your impressions - we are so pleased that your first experience of Mahler 9 was SUCH a memorable occasion.
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Facebook follower John Chamberlain writes about a world premiere in 1964!
“I was fortunate enough to be in London's Royal Albert Hall for the world premiere of Deryck Cooke’s full length performing version Mahler Symphony No. 10 at the Proms on 13 August 1964. At that time I only knew recordings of Mahler’s 1st and 4th Symphonies; this was my first experience of Mahler's music live.
Thinking back to that concert nearly sixty years ago, I have three abiding memories:
the fortissimo blows on the muffled military drum which link the second scherzo to the finale and which considerably unsettled the audience; the long, ineffably beautiful flute solo in the finale, and after the performance, conductor Berthold Goldschmidt and Deryck Cooke held the score aloft to fervent applause.
Two years later I bought the recording by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra and began the process of assimilating this music, although at that time I knew nothing of the circumstances in which it was written during that tumultuous summer of 1910.”
John Chamberlain
Many thanks for that special memory John, and for the photos of your 1964 programme from the Royal Albert Hall!
To complement John’s item, Facebook follower David Woodward of Colorado, USA, has sent us the link to the BBC radio broadcast of 19 December 1960, when Deryck Cooke presented his first (incomplete) attempt at a ‘performing version’ of the draft of Mahler’s unfinished Symphony No. 10:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqthgNuFF9Y
Mahler fans, please send us YOUR historic Mahler performance memories - either as a comment on Facebook, or on email to info@mahlersociety.org
