# "Fashion is a strange thing"



## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

http://mahler.universaledition.com/simon-rattle-gustav-mahler/

For us, it was as though we had found our music. And this is just exactly as Mahler said it would be. And then of course I bought whatever records I could afford. My father was travelling in America; he brought me back this extraordinary performance of Bruno Walter conducting the Fifth Symphony, the fastest performance on record, almost, of any piece. We were the generation who were given it, and had no doubts about it: we were blessed. And I remember reading famous books about the symphonies, saying: well, of course only the First and Fourth Symphonies by Mahler are of any interest at all, others are just monstrosities. It's weird - I'm old enough to remember when he was a type of joke.

_Mahler?
_
Yes.

_In Britain?
_
Even.

_Even in Britain?
_
Yes. I remember also when I first met the Berlin Philharmonic. I can remember very well all the members of the Berlin Philharmonic saying to me 'Well, of course, Strauss is the much greater composer', as taken for granted. Nowadays, maybe we tend to undervalue Strauss. *Fashion is a strange thing.*

http://kennethwoods.net/blog1/2011/08/07/who-are-the-most-underrated-composers-of-all-time/

It wasn't always so, of course. My writing and thinking about Gustav Mahler is largely informed by the fact that when I discovered him, he was considered something of a cult composer where I lived- almost Havergal Brian-ian in the way that his pieces were considered notable first and foremost for their scale and obscurity, but not for their importance or quality. Now Gus is King, long live King Gus. Gus is box office. Gus is prime time and mainstream, but when I write about Mahler, it's probably the ghost of young Ken, hunting libraries around his hometown for copies of a score to the 6th or trying to find a decent book about his music who guides the pen. No matter how overplayed his music becomes, I'll always write and talk about Mahler as though I've just stumbled on something really cool and obscure that I really, really think the world ought to know about. Nonetheless, calling Mahler underrated (other than by jaded critics who think there must be something suspicious about anything as beautiful and exciting as the 8th Symphony) is obviously absurd.

Any older members like to share the fashions of their day?


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