{"id":2772,"date":"2023-10-18T17:59:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T21:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2772"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:59:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T21:59:25","slug":"mahler-bernstein-and-the-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/10\/mahler-bernstein-and-the-marriage.html","title":{"rendered":"Mahler, Bernstein, and “The Marriage”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What did Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein have in common? As is well known, Bernstein was a triumphant advocate of Mahler\u2019s symphonies at a moment when they had yet to enter the mainstream repertoire. And both were outsiders \u2013 Mahler as a Jew in Vienna, and Bernstein as someone trying to resolve the oxymoron \u201cAmerican classical musician.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in my NPR interview<\/a> yesterday about my new novel, The Marriage: The Mahlers in New<\/em><\/strong> York<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, I found myself talking about what they did not<\/em> have in common. Bernstein, conducting the New York Philharmonic in the 1960s, was an exemplary music director. Mahler, conducting the Philharmonic from 1908 to 1911, was judged a \u201cfailure\u201d \u2013 not as a conductor, but as a cultural leader. Exploring this verdict, I contrast Bernstein\u2019s excavation of little-known American works with Mahler\u2019s inattention to the fledgling American composer. In the process, I have occasion to mull the challenge facing the Philharmonic and other American orchestras right now \u2013 a moment when the role of the \u201cmusic director\u201d must be redefined (the topic of my 7,000-word rant<\/a><\/strong> in the current American Scholar<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also discuss how I found myself sympathetic to the plight of Gustav\u2019s controversial wife, Alma \u2013 and so discovered how historical fiction could be a crucial tool for the cultural historian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Mahler\u2019s supreme importance was not as a conductor or a husband, but as a great composer \u2013 a verdict supported by a supremely beautiful orchestral extract (from the slow movement of Mahler\u2019s Fourth) at the close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also: I am delighted to announce that Wolke Verlag will publisher a German translation of my novel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My thanks, as ever, to Rupert Allman and Jenn White at WAMU, the DC public radio station that produces \u201c1A\u201d \u2013 home to my \u201cMore than Music\u201d<\/a><\/strong> features, and also yesterday\u2019s interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What did Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein have in common? As is well known, Bernstein was a triumphant advocate of Mahler\u2019s symphonies at a moment when they had yet to enter the mainstream repertoire. And both were outsiders \u2013 Mahler as a Jew in Vienna, and Bernstein as someone trying to resolve the oxymoron \u201cAmerican […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-II","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2772"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2779,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2772\/revisions\/2779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}