Stephen Johnson's "The 8th - Mahler & the World in 1910" (book)

[barryguerrero]

Hi folks. I picked up the British version of "The Eighth - Mahler and the World in 1910" for a very reasonable price through Bookdepository.com. I'm about 50 pages into and I'm pleasantly surprised. It's very well written. More importantly, he doesn't just reiterate all the usual cliches about 'fin de siecle' Vienna - all the decadence; all the 'weltschmerz'; all the psycho this and that, etc. You've read all that stuff before. No, there's some real original thought happening here. So far, so good. No photos though! The publisher is Faber & Faber.  ISBN # 978-0-571-23494-3

Perhaps the U.S. domestic version will have photos, which is scheduled to be released in October.

[barryguerrero]

Final verdict on this book: don't bother. Passages about the logistics and build-up to the premiere performance of M8 in Munich are pretty interesting. From there, the book segues into becoming an info-mercial for the BBC, with a complete rehash of why Deryck Cooke's Mahler 10 matters. More mention is given to the hack Matthew brothers than to Berthold Goldschmidt. Alma's clandestine rendezvous (plural) with Walter Gropius is completely rehashed, as is Mahler's failing health in the end. To make matters worse, after given a very long, blow by blow account of both parts to Mahler 8, Johnson suddenly decides that he's in agreement with Adorno about the ending to Mahler 8 - viewing it as forced 'yes' saying (something like that). In the end, Johnson's book ends up being more a plug for Mahler 10 than it's about Mahler 8. It turns into scrambled eggs - for me, anyway. It should have the BBC 3 logo on the cover.