BOOK REVIEW
An Affinity with Gustav Mahler
Edited by Stewart Quentin Holmes
Elius Books (Paperback £11.99 180pp) ISBN 0-952-87120-3
Only available from
www.elius-books.com
This begins strangely. 'The main purpose of this book,' publisher D.V.
Knox-Richards writes in the Acknowledgements, 'apart from promoting the world
of Gustav Mahler, is to try to take out the stuffiness which we have seen
in several publications about the composer. Any book about the life and work
of composers needs to be approached in a way that readers can understand,
and not be blinded by the science of those who come from "upper class"
backgrounds whose writings are barely comprehensible.' Which certainly seems
to put a few people firmly in their places. Just what a comment like this
is meant to achieve I have no idea. And what a pity Mr. Knox-Richards didn't
have the courage to name those "upper class" people whose work so clearly
offends him. Certainly leading off a book ostensibly designed to widen the
appreciation of a great artist does itself no favours by an attack on others
who are only trying to do the same. As we will see, anyone reading this book
will come to need those very authors if they are to develop an affinity with
Gustav Mahler.
No Bibliography in this book therefore, and no index either. Mind you, this
is not the kind of book for which an index is appropriate containing as it
does a series of fourteen personal essays by people apparently from various
walks of life (though presumably not "upper class") mixing enthusiasm and
involvement in the music of Mahler with some quite deep analysis. I say
"apparently" because there is no clear indication for readers as to who these
people are, other than experienced music lovers who clearly know and love
their Mahler. Any personal details must be picked up from the pieces themselves.
Clive Bates, for example, writes engagingly about the Eighth Symphony from
the point of view of a chorister who has sung in twenty performances of that
work and I enjoyed his chapter as he clearly knows and loves the work. The
revelation that he once saw comedian Frankie Howerd in the audience for one
performance was an unexpected gem. Most chapters are centred on one work
but there is also a Mahlerian travelogue by Stanley Wilson and a quite well
informed piece on Mahler's medical history by Dr. H. Max White. Interspersed
with the main pieces are some short thoughts on Mahler - in effect micros
of the macro articles - by well-known personalities mainly, though not
exclusively, from the world of the arts and music. These have been chosen
well from Georg Solti to Baroness Blackstone to Arnold Wesker, among others.
I especially agree with the young British conductor Daniel Harding's observation:
"I cannot think of many composers whose music is as uncomfortable and unsettling
as Mahler's - and the current trend to smooth off the edges is extremely
disturbing." Less welcome is the image that has been created on page 93 of
Mahler apparently crucified on a Calgary cross, complete with a crown of
thorns on his head. I think this will be offensive to many Christians and
Jews.
This is not a book to be read through at one sitting, though. The approach
of each writer is different each time so inevitably it is a bit of an uneven
read. For example, Andrew Fairley rambles rather through too many good ideas
in his chapter on the Fifth and could have done with some judicious editing.
Some of the writers, like Peter Franklin on the First Symphony, give an engaging
amount of personal recollection as to how they came to Mahler's music as
well as history and analysis of the work allocated. Others, like Paul Gudgin
on the Third, offer only straightforward description of the work with little
personal involvement. Ian Mathias-Baker uses the Ninth as a case study for
his view on how music in general can convey meaning and anyone looking for
a more basic introduction to that work, as they find in Sarah Perrin's splendid
chapter on Das Lied Von Der Erde, for example, will be disappointed. Perrin's
account of how she, an accountant by profession, came to Mahler's music and
that late masterpiece in particular is the best chapter in the book. An example
of how enthusiasts can often have something to teach even the professionals.
Earlier Kieran Cooper shows an admirable scepticism regarding the testimony
of Alma Mahler where others in the book are more trusting of the lady. There
is also overlap. You cannot consider one Mahler work in isolation so you
will find some details being repeated. But there is also a case or two of
writers contradicting each other on factual grounds. Mahler's health is an
example. One chapter tells you wrongly that Mahler received a terminal
heart diagnosis in 1907. Another tells you, correctly, that he didn't. Perhaps
an Editor's footnote in the former case would have been a good idea.
So read the book piecemeal as you come to listen to each work and, preferably,
on the occasions of your very first acquaintance with that work. Because
I believe it is to the first-time listener that this book would be
most suitable. People who have never heard a note of Mahler's music often
ask me what it is I find so fascinating about his life and work and I would
happily recommend this book to them. The overwhelming impression you receive
is of how an affinity with the music of Mahler can indeed change the course
of your life and affect your way of looking at the world. It was a feature
article in the Sunday Times magazine in the late 1960s that first made me
want to seek out Mahler's music before I had heard a note of it. I can see
this book fulfilling just that function even though later on those same new
listeners would without question need to move on to other books by authors
who probably would not find favour with Mr. Knox-Richards.
It's hard to imagine reading this book more than once but it would be a good
first step in a Mahler odyssey prior to books by Mitchell, de La Grange,
Cooke, Blaukopf and Floros. There is no substitute for enthusiasm and the
enthusiasm of these writers certainly sent me back to the works they describe.
Tony Duggan
