May 18, 2024
- Vincent Mouret, Vice President, Bibliothèque musicale La Grange – Fleuret
- Marina Mahler, Founder and President Mahler Foundation
- Sybille Werner, Conductor, Musicologist
Program
It seems an unlikely story: the son of a French nobleman and an American heiress is raised on both sides of the Atlantic, attends Yale University, seemingly predestined to a life of luxury in the company of his artist friends in the most comfortable of surroundings.
And then he is struck, dumbfounded by a performance of a Mahler symphony conducted by Bruno Walter. The experience is transformative, leading him to dedicate his life’s work to writing a biography of Gustav Mahler, the biography of Gustav Mahler.
Over the years his penchant for minutiae unearths aspects of the composer’s life that had been lost to history, unknown to the scholarship. Painstakingly recording as best he could the weeks, sometimes the daily occurrences in the artist’s life de La Grange poured his heart into every loving detail. For him it was a labor of love and a task that, in truth, could never be truly finished.
After completing an initial volume in English in 1973, de La Grange produced three enormous volumes in French, only to be followed by another English-language revision in four voluminous tomes that numbered a total of more than 4,000 pages.
The Mahler community remains indebted to this enormous accomplishment, and so on the 100th anniversary of M. de La Grange’s birth in May 1924, we take a look at the man and his work. We will hear from friends and associates Vincent Mouret, Sybille Werner, and Marina Mahler. We also see excerpts from the wonderful
documentary devoted to this fascinating individual by Jason Starr.
Play now and Join us for this very special birthday celebration of Henry-Louis de La Grange!
Hosted by Morten Solvik