“I could understand Wozzeck better when I knew Mahler.”

Mr Boulez, do you remember the first time you heard the music of Mahler?

Boulez: I don’t think I remember. Yes, I suppose I remember. In France it was not performed at all when I was young. First during the war of course, but even after the war there was a very big gap between the Austrian musical culture and the French musical culture. Therefore I think the first time I heard Mahler, that was in France anyway – but I mean it was the 4th Symphony, and I remember the Schellen [sleigh-bells] at the beginning, because it was so unusual to hear this kind of noise, to begin a symphony especially, that it was surprising. And I mean that it was Kletzki, it was not a French conductor who conducted it, it was Paul Kletzki.

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“With Mahler – you have to give yourself”

Do you remember when you heard the music of Mahler for the first time?

Nott: Yes. I came to Mahler through singing actually. I was eight, singing in England, in the Cathedral in Worcester, and it was Mahler’s 8th and I was in the Knabenchor. And I must have sung some of this piece three or four times in the time I was a boy. And then as far as I remember, the first part was great. I was eight years old, no problem, but the second part goes on and on … But we were still singing.

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“What Mahler did in Vienna is beyond human.”

Mr Welser-Möst, do you remember the first time you heard the music of Gustav Mahler?

Welser-Möst: Yes, I do. It was actually the Symphony No. 1 and must have been ten or eleven years old and it was the student orchestra of the Wiener Musikhochschule, at that time with Karl Österreicher. So that was quite some time ago.

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“For conductors Mahler seems to be to be the most personal composer”

Do you remember the first time you heard the music of Gustav Mahler?

Gatti: I began at nine, ten to study music. And of course the names of the composers who were familiar to me were Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rossini, Verdi – Mahler was totally unknown to me. Then I heard my father say ‘Mahler, Mahler – there is a symphony of Mahler on the radio’. And I said ‘But who is this composer?’. He said ‘It’s fantastic music, listen!’ I didn’t want to listen. Then, growing up, at twelve, thirteen, almost every evening he brought home a (very cheap) record. It was the whole repertoire, from Mozart to Stravinsky; he just wanted to introduce me to the orchestral sound. I remember he bought the 1st Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter, and so the first time I listened to the music of Mahler was with my father in our sitting room – at least 20 minutes of the 1st Symphony. And there I was, listening, without any particular emotion at that moment, but it was important that subconsciously I was absorbing his style.

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“I started to conduct Mahler out of spite.”

Mr Barenboim, do you remember the first time you heard the music of Gustav Mahler?

Barenboim: No. I remember playing the songs on the piano with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau – this must be in the early ‘70s – The Wunderhorn-Songs, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückertlieder – all, except the Kindertotenlieder, because they were not originally written as a piano version. And the first Mahler Symphony I conducted was the 5th, in 1973. But I came – in my biography, as it were – quite late to Mahler. I started very young, also conducting, but I was not really into it until quite late, until I was over 30.

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Wiederveröffentlichung aus dem Magazin des Wiener Musikvereins. Mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Autors.

Als Komponist ist er Doyen der Avantgarde, als Dirigent ein kluger Anwalt der großen Innovatoren der Musikgeschichte: Pierre Boulez. Mit Gustav Mahler verbindet ihn eine besondere Beziehung, wie sich das Musikvereinspublikum zuletzt im Herbst bei den umjubelten Konzerten mit der Staatskapelle Berlin überzeugen durfte. Zur Fortsetzung dieses Mahler-Zyklus verdeutlicht Pierre Boulez im Gespräch mit Walter Weidringer Aspekte seiner Sicht auf den Komponisten- und Dirigentenkollegen. (more…)