circa 1900's fiction etc.

[Clov]

Fiction from Mahler's time, esp. Vienna.

Has anyone finished works of this time and place. I hadn't gotten through even the first volume of Musil's The Man without Qualities, might hope to eventually. The explenation of the accused killer in court is hard to forget, I remember that much from my efforts. I never finished The Magic Mountain either, though remember well a couple real funny bits, this one appealed to me far more and yet... Read a good deal of Mann's short stories though, including the obvious. It might be interesting to discuss things of this nature also, a good deal going on in that time and place, symbolist painters and budding pyscho-analysts, on and on really.

[Clov]

no one gives a hoot obviously, none-the-less, here we go...

i got both a obsure semi-historical novel about alma titled simply 'alma', and a mystery semi-historical novel circa timeperiod/location called 'the fig-eater'

could be a minute till i get around to them, i'm on an alan banks binge currently.

 

[Prospero]

Mann's "Death in Venice" is a novella almost certainly based on aspects of Mahler and his life. Visconti's great film on this work makes that explicit. Britten's last opera on this theme is also of note. You might listen to Britten's conduction of the Mahler 4th at Aldeborough as a parallel path.

The chapter on recorded music in "The Magic Mountain" (one of the great works of the last 100 years) should also be of interest to those concerned with music and its transmission.

Mann was at the premiere of the 7th Symphony, and there is a photo of Mann with Mahler at that event in Kaplan's compilation of Mahler images.

Perhaps an interest in Mahler should also reach out to the literature and art of his era, and take in something of his immense influence and importance then, as well as now. Klimt's Beethoven frieze is of interest, as well as Mahler's conducting of the last movement of Beethoven's 9th at the opening of the exhibit at the Secession in Vienna in about 1907.

Best,

Tom in Vermont

[Clov]

I thought Mann was at the premiere of M8? I think the photo with Mahler is inclusive, I could be wrong.

I agree about Magic Mountain, can't even rememebr exactly why I'd stopped reading it, had some unbeleivably funny moments, with vivid discriptions and ambience. I'd read somewhere that there is a vigorous discussion of Aida in the novel, nearing the close perhaps.

Need to check out more Britten, I've also been very interested in The Turn of the Screw too. So much music, so little time.

That time and place, circa the  turn-of-the-century, can be a real bummer becoming greatly informed of, I don't doubt this; about every bit as uplifting John Coltrane...

[James Meckley]

Mann was at the premiere of the 7th Symphony, and there is a photo of Mann with Mahler at that event in Kaplan's compilation of Mahler images.

I thought Mann was at the premiere of M8? I think the photo with Mahler is inclusive, I could be wrong.

The only mention of Thomas Mann in the 2011 edition of Kaplan's The Mahler Album has to do with photos 126–129, which were taken in Munich during the time of the premiere of the Eighth. The accompanying text includes the following:

"Pictured with Mahler are conductor Klaus Prigsheim and William Ritter. Some sources mistakenly identify Ritter as the author Thomas Mann."

James

[James Meckley]

Mann's "Death in Venice" is a novella almost certainly based on aspects of Mahler and his life. Visconti's great film on this work makes that explicit.

And Ken Russell's 1974 film Mahler makes a charming reference to the earlier Visconti film by having Mahler glance out the window of his stopped train to see Aschenbach and Tadzio interact on the station platform.

James

[Prospero]

Thomas Mann's brother-in-law, Klaus Pringsheim, was a strong supporter of Mahler, according to de la Grange, vol. 3, p. 405. So probably some influence on Mann.

Thanks for the close reading and correction about the supposed photo of Mann with Mahler.

On Visconti's film of "Death in Venice," he makes Gustav von Aschenbach a composer (a la Mahler) and uses the Adagietto from the 5th as the main theme song. One of the first big media uses of Mahler's music.

[Clov]

Yes, Thanks James.

What you just said Prospero, about making the author a composer in the film, pretty much seals the connection. I've never seen the film. In case anyone wishes to note this, Hesse's The Glass Bead Game ends in a very similar way as Mann's Venice. Maybe both references to a Schopenhauer controversy?