Correspondence with Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler, and Franz Werfel, 1911-1960.

Format:

• Other

Author/Creator:

• Walter, Bruno, 1876-1962.

Contributor:

• Walter, Elizabeth B. (Elizabeth Barbara), 1940-
• McLane, Mary.
• Reinhardt, Delia, 1892-1974.
• Johnson, Harriet.
• Bohm, Jerome D.

Language:

• English
• German

Physical Description:

85 items (104 leaves)

Contained In:

Mahler-Werfel Papers. Folders 1296-1299.

Place of Publication:

1911-1960.

Language Note:

In German and English.

Biography/History:

Elsa Walter (née Wirthschaft, previous married name Korneck) was an opera singer and Bruno's wife; they were married from around 1900 until Elsa's death, which was apparently in 1945. Delia Reinhardt, an opera singer whom Walter had mentored, was a close friend of Walter. McLane was a friend of Alma Mahler who communicated with Alma upon Walter's death; she lived in Calif.

Summary:

The correspondence begins with 1 item from Walter addressed to Gustav Mahler, concerning Richard Strauss and the premiere of his opera Der Rosenkavalier. Walter's correspondence with Alma Mahler begins with a condolence letter upon Gustav's death. Following these 2 items, there is a gap in the correspondence until the 1930s. The next items are a note from Walter detailing his conducting schedule in 1933, apparently written during a visit with Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel at Breitenstein; and then a condolence letter upon the death of Manon Gropius, in 1935. From the late 1930s on, a significant aspect of the correspondence is its reflection of Walter's role in the promotion of the work of Gustav Mahler, and of his performances and recordings of Mahler's works. Other topics in the late 1930s include the suicide of Walter's daughter Gretel; Walter's response to Werfel's essay about Czech history, "Das Geschenk der Tschechen an Europa"; and the movements of Bruno and Elsa Walter, as well as Alma and Franz, in exile. After the couples' respective emigrations to the U.S., additional topics up until 1946 include: Walter's responses to the Broadway staging of Werfel's play Jacobowsky and the Colonel and to the film based on Werfel's novel The Song of Bernadette; Walter's undertaking the writing of his memoirs; the respective illnesses and deaths of Elsa Walter and of Franz Werfel; and visits of Walter with Werfel's mother and sisters, in New York City, and with Anna Mahler and her husband Anatole Fistoulari, in London. A number of items in 1948 (including 2 draft items from Alma) relate to Walter's participation in the events at the Vienna State Opera (with his conducting Mahler's second symphony) in honor of the ceremonial unveiling of a bust of Gustav Mahler (a gift from Alma), and Alma's decision not to attend. Several items in 1956 (including 1 draft item from Alma) concern the founding of the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft, with Walter as its first honorary president. 1 item from Walter in 1960 is a response to Alma on the occasion of Gustav Mahler's centennial. Also included are 4 newspaper clippings, 3 of which are reviews of Walter's conducting of Mahler's fourth symphony with the New York Philharmonic, presumably in 1945; Johnson and Bohm are authors of 2 of the reviews.

Notes:

Includes drafts of 5 items from Alma Mahler; 8 items from Elsa Walter; 3 items co-written or co-sent by Elsa and Bruno Walter; and 1 postscript from Reinhardt.