I’ve recently made a discovery which I’d like to share on this forum because I’m not sure how widely known it is, and maybe someone might find it interesting.
I’ve just finished reading “A Century of Wisdom”, the biography of a remarkable and inspiring lady, Alice Herz-Sommer. Much has previously been written about her and several films made – she is at 109 years of age the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, a concert pianist, originally from Prague but now living in London. What I for one was not aware of before reading the book, published only last September, is that as a child she briefly met her mother’s childhood friend Gustav Mahler following the farewell performance of his “Resurrection” symphony in Vienna on 24th November 1907. I’m amazed that there’s someone living today who, although she was very young at the time, actually met Mahler in the flesh and saw him conduct - doubtless many of us will envy Alice this wonderful privilege.
However, I question the author’s statement that Alice was most likely with her mother at the West-Bahnhof to wave as Mahler’s train left Vienna “the morning after the concert”. According to Henry-Louis de La Grange, Mahler did not leave until two weeks later, on 9th December. The book is well worth reading though, on a number of counts.
