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Gustav Mahler: "Mein lieber Trotzkopf, meine susse Mohnblume": Briefe an Anna von Mildenburg.

Article Excerpt
Gustav Mahler: "Mein lieber Trotzkopf, meine susse Mohnblume": Briefe an Anna von Mildenburg. Edited and with a commentary by Franz Willnauer. Vienna: Paul Zsolnay Verlag, 2006. [509 p. ISBN-10: 3-552-05389-1; ISBN-13: 978-3-552-05389-2. [euro]45.] Bibliographic references, indexes.

With the publication of Gustav Mahler: "Mein lieber Trotzkopf, meine susse Mohnblume": Briefe an Anna von Mildenburg the last major collection of the composer's letters is now in print. Not entirely unknown, the Mildenburg collection, which includes not only letters, but other materials related to the famous Wagnerian soprano's career, is part of the Theatersammlung of the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (Vienna, Austria), an archive physically separated from the Musikabteiling of the same institution. While some of the contents of the letters have been already published, as in Mildenburg's article "Aus Briefen Gustav Mahlers" (Moderne Welt 3, no. 7 [1921-1922]: 13-14) and in Alma Mahler's Gustav Mahler: Briefe (Berlin: Paul Zsolnay, 1924), they are printed in their entirety here for the first time. Although some of the previously available letters have been intriguing, the collection as a whole is useful in shedding light on both Mahler's career from his time in Hamburg through the early part of his years in Vienna, and also on his close association with the singer Anna von Mildenburg.

The relationship between Gustav Mahler and Anna von Mildenburg is known primarily for the involvement of the young conductor with the talented soprano whom he essentially discovered and promoted in the early part of her career. While director of the Hamburg opera, Mahler was responsible for Mildenburg's professional debut in the role of Brunnhilde in Wagner's Die Walkure on 11 September 1895 in a performance that he himself conducted. Mildenburg was successful from the start, and she became one of the noted Wagnerian performers of the day. As her mentor, Mahler became close to Mildenburg, and the evidence of these letters suggests that their...