220px-Photo_of_Gustav_Mahler_by_Moritz_Nähr_01The following post is from longtime blog friend Benjy:
The following anecdote is an excerpt taken from the recent and excellent Mahler biography (Yale University Press 2011) written by Jens Malte Fischer, and translated into English by Stewart Spencer.  I am sure that the author would not mind me sharing this “slice of orchestral life” with the rest of the Bass community.  Thanks to his research, we get a real glimpse as to how this great composer/conductor treated his fellow musicians and in this case, a bass player.  Nowadays, such behavior on the part of musical directors would be considered intolerable and would most likely serve as a basis for their one-way ticket out the door.
Chapter 32  “Starting Afresh: New York” (1908-1911), concerns, Mahler’s time spent in New York helping to revive and strengthen the NY Phil. :

—–“This is how his audiences and most critics viewed the situation. And yet there were reservations that were to increase with the passage of time. Neither the orchestra nor the audience, which was attuned to superficial spectacle and glamour, could really warm to this austere Savonarola of music, which is how many of them regarded Mahler. It is clear from radio interviews given by members of the orchestra during the 1960’s that almost all of them were afraid of Mahler. The thin little man radiated a tremendous authority and knew how to exert it whenever he was cross or annoyed. Latecomers were an abomination to him, and he refused to put up with fidgeting or gossip during his rehearsals. Even 50 years later one member of the orchestra could still recall Mahler asking one of the double basses to play a particular passage* on his own since he suspected him of poor intonation.  The man declared that he was too nervous to do so.  Mahler went on rehearsing. Half an hour later he broke off again: ‘Are you still nervous,?’  ‘Yes’  The same conversation was repeated 30 mins. later, at which point Mahler finally called it a day.  At the start of the next day’s rehearsal, Mahler asked the player again.  By this point he was a bundle of nerves.  ‘I didn’t sleep all night and I’m still very nervous.’  ‘You know, you have no business to play in a symphony orchestra,’ retorted Mahler.  ‘You should be playing in the back room of a saloon.’
   (excerpt taken from William Malloch’s ‘Mahlerthon’ currently available from Sony Classical onBernstein/Mahler : The Complete Symphonies )
*(the name of the work is not mentioned.  Could this have been the bass solo from his First Symphony? )

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