Gustav Mahler--Richard Strauss: Correspondence 1888-1911 by Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Herta Blaukopf, Edmund Jephcott

3.75 AVERAGE

nataliebriggs29's review

3.5
informative slow-paced
Despite being an orchestral musician for almost all of my life, I really didn't know anything about these two composers other than a few notable works. I thought this book was really interesting, although obviously leaning more towards academic writing which made it a much slower read for me. 

This book aims to portray the relationship between these two men as more amiable and complex than Alma Mahler's book/politics during WWII led us to believe. The last 20 pages of the essay at the end of this book were so interesting in this respect - arguing that the Strauss/Mahler relationship was more of a push and pull of personality and artistic vision and both held the other in high esteem due to a basic shared outlook on what mattered in life. I thought this essay was well argued and gave a great overview of the timeline of their periods of more or less correspondence.

The letters are interesting too. I will say the first half of the letters read like Mahler is lowkey obsessed with Strauss and Strauss is just ghosting him because there are no printed replies lmaooo. I know that more of Mahler's letters were preserved and that's why but it did give me a giggle every time Mahler was like "come stay at my house I miss youuuu"

super interesting, someone should write a play about these guys and I wanna play Alma!!