Mahler as Interpreter

Rachmaninoff in New York City

Sergei Rachmaninoff was introduced to America as a pianist, as he'd yet to gain fame as a composer. He made his New York debut, led by Mahler, in 1909 as a pianist, performing his Third Piano Concerto, which he'd written for the tour to showcase his gifts as both pianist and composer.

Rachmaninoff continued to perform his Piano Concerto No. 3 for many years, and in 1939-40 recorded it with The Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy.

Naxos Historical: Great Pianists: Rachmaninoff

William Malloch's “I Remember Mahler,” New York Philharmonic: The Mahler Broadcasts, 1948 - 1982

Mahler and Strauss

Richard Strauss and Mahler first met in Europe in 1887, and the two conductor-composers often scheduled performances of each other’s works. Mahler continued to ensure that Strauss’s music was played regularly, even if he did make some of the works sound “new” with his own particular interpretation.​

New York audiences had already embraced Strauss, having encountered him during his American tour in 1904, when he made his US debut with the Philharmonic.

The Philharmonic has performed many Strauss works over the years, and his Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks remains one of the Philharmonic's great orchestral showcases.

New York Philharmonic Special Editions: Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic

Gustav Mahler: Merry Prankster

Though many of Richard Strauss’s works were not new when Mahler performed them with the Philharmonic, Strauss was seen by many as the bad boy of serious music after his Salome had been withdrawn after a single, scandalous performance at The Metropolitan Opera in 1908. At the Philharmonic, Mahler programmed Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung, Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan, and songs, as well as numerous hearings of Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche.​

William Malloch's “I Remember Mahler,” New York Philharmonic: The Mahler Broadcasts, 1948–1982

Mahler and Wagner

In a way, Wagner brought Mahler to the New York Philharmonic – or, more accurately, Wagner’s music did. Mahler made his New York debut in 1908 at The Metropolitan Opera, leading Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde to wild acclaim, as well as Die Walküre and Siegfried.

Following Mahler's performances of Wagner at The Met Mary Sheldon, re-organizer and future president of the Philharmonic, told The New York Times of April 19, 1908, “While he is here it would be a pity if he should not have a chance to conduct purely orchestral music with an orchestra of his own.”

Mrs. Sheldon led the effort to hire Mahler as the Philharmonic's Music Director.

Among the many notable interpreters of Wagner at the New York Philharmonic was Mahler protégé Bruno Walter, who led the Orchestra in the Immolation Scene from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung with soprano Kirsten Flagstad on a broadcast on March 23, 1952.​

New York Philharmonic: The Historic Broadcasts, 1923 to 1987

Wagneriana

Mahler revered Wagner’s music, and from his New York Philharmonic debut on March 31, 1909, when he led the Siegfried Idyll and the Tannhäuser Overture, he programmed Wagner over 140 times.

In February and March 1910 and January 1911, Mahler and the Philharmonic devoted several concerts to expansive Wagner cycles, both as purely orchestral showcases and with the day's stellar Wagnerian singers.​

For the next two years, Wagner was nearly always on the slate, with selections from all his major operas, the Wesendonk-Lieder, and such rarities as the Kaisermarsch., where Mahler's markings are seen in the Philharmonic's score.

That consistent focus on a single composer paid off. Critics at the first Philharmonic Wagner performances Mahler led already noticed improvements, and over time the Orchestra’s artistic insight and technical virtuosity grew by leaps and bounds ...

William Malloch's "I Remember Mahler," New York Philharmonic: The Mahler Broadcasts, 1948–1982

Mahler and Beethoven

Mahler saw Beethoven as a god — inspiring, inexhaustible. More than that, Mahler saw in his German predecessor a personal model: he considered Beethoven as the exemplar of the misunderstood artist who relentlessly pushed his art forward.

Mahler and the Philharmonic performed works by Beethoven over 60 times in two seasons.

As The New York Times reported on November 20, 1909: “The Philharmonic Society began yesterday afternoon the Beethoven Cycle that is one of Mr. Mahler’s cherished projects in connection with the enlargement of the Philharmonic’s sphere of activity. The cycle is to consist of five concerts, in which will be performed all the nine symphonies except the first, and seven of the eleven overtures.... The playing of the orchestra has improved. Its tone has gained in richness, smoothness, and beauty of quality, as well as in homogeneity.”

By the end of the Philharmonic's 1909–10 season, Mahler had conducted more works of Beethoven than those of any other composer. This began a tradition that those who succeeded him would continue.

William Malloch's "I Remember Mahler," New York Philharmonic: The Mahler Broadcasts, 1948–1982

Alma Mahler. Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters, edited by Donald Mitchell. Read by Nishi Badhwar.

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