Vienna Mahler Lecture #12

The Other Mengelberg: Assessing Rudolf-s Personal and Professional Writings on Mahler with Justin Gregg

In the field of Mahler studies, the name -Mengelberg- almost always refers to Willem, the conductor and early advocate of Mahler-s works, with whom Mahler developed a close personal friendship during the last decade of his life. In this lecture, however, I will explore the writings of Willem-s younger cousin, Rudolf Mengelberg (1892-1959), who moved from Germany to the Netherlands during the First World War and spent his career as an administrator of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. As a musicologist, Rudolf wrote about Mahler in numerous documents spanning his lifetime, including a 1916 essay on the contemporary world, an extensive program book for the Concertgebouw-s 1920 Mahler-Feest, a shorter 1923 biography of the composer, and a 1948 monograph on the state of music after the Second World War.

For Mengelberg, Mahler-s music takes on different cultural and political meanings across time, in parallel with ongoing changes to society during the pivotal era in which he lived. In this lecture, I will examine his published writings as well as unpublished archival sources, tracing the evolution of his views on Mahler in order to add to the increasingly complex story of Mahler-s global reception across the twentieth century.

Zeit & Ort
17. Mär. 2026, 18:00
Wissenschaftszentrum Gustav Mahler und die Wiener Moderne
Lothringerstraße 18
1030 Wien

Eintritt
frei

Kontakt
Susanne Hofinger
hofinger [a] mdw[.]ac[.]at

Veranstalter_in
Wissenschaftszentrum Gustav Mahler und die Wiener Moderne