Emil Gutmann (1877-1938)

There is no photo of Emil Gutmann (1877-1938). 

• Full name: Emil Albert Herrmann Josef Siegfried Gutmann
• Profession: Impresario.
• Residences: Munich.
• Relation to Mahler: 1910 Concert Munich 12-09-1910 – Symphony No. 8 (Premiere) and 1910 Concert Munich 13-09-1910 – Symphony No. 8.
• Correspondence with Mahler: Yes.
  1. 00-00-1908 Year 1908 New York: Letter to Emil Gutmann. Early 1908. 1907-1908 Hotel Majestic. 
  2. 00-00-1908 Year 1908 New York: Letter to Emil Gutmann. Early Summer 1908.
  3. 31-07-1908 Year 1908 Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  4. 13-08-1908 Year 1908 Toblach: Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  5. 00-10-1908 Year 1908 Letter to Emil Gutmann. Mid-October 1908.
  6. 24-09-1909 Year 1909 Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  7. 00-00-1909 Year 1909 New York: Letter to Emil Gutmann. Late autumn 1909.
  8. 00-03-1910 Year 1910 New York: Letter to Emil Gutmann. 
  9. 18-04-1910 Year 1910 Paris: Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  10. 00-05-1910 Year 1910 Vienna: Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  11. 00-05-1910 Year 1910 Vienna: Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  12. 00-05-1910 Year 1910 Vienna: Letter to Emil Gutmann. Late May 1910.
  13. 07-06-1910 Year 1910 Vienna: Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  14. 13-07-1910 Year 1910 Toblach: Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  15. 05-08-1910 Year 1910 Maiernigg: Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  16. 00-08-1910 Year 1910 Letter to Emil Gutmann.
  17. 00-09-1910 Year 1910 Letter to Emil Gutmann. Late August/Early September 1910
  18. 00-00-1910 Year 1910 Letter to Emil Gutmann. Autumn 1910.
  19. 31-01-1911 Year 1911 New York: Letter to Emil Gutmann. 1910-1911 Hotel Savoy.
• Born: 24-02-1877 Vienna
  • Father: Albert Gutmann
  • Mother: Albertina Johanna Katharina Gutmann
• Baptized: 11-03-1877
• Address: The office for the 1910 music festivals was situated in the Theatinerstrasse 38 and directed by Emil Gutmann.
• Died: 02-08-1938 Vienna (61 years old)
• Buried: 06-08-1938 

Symphony No. 7

See also History Symphony No. 7, 10-08-1908 and 1908 Concert Munich 27-10-1908 – Symphony No. 7.

Symphony No. 8

1910 Concert Munich 12-09-1910 – Symphony No. 8 (Premiere).

Mahler’s 8th, premiered on September 12th, 1910, under Mahler’s baton with 1,029 performers (858 singers, 171 orchestral members – impresario Emil Gutmann coined the “Symphony of a Thousand” moniker) is made up of two perfectly unconnected parts, a massive choral and organ section over orchestra set to the 1,200-year-old Latin hymnus Veni, creator spiritus and then the mysterious music set to the equally mysterious closing scene of Goethe’s Faust, Part II. 

Year 1910. 12-04-1910 Letter from Gustav Mahler to Emil Gutmann about Symphony No. 8.

Mahler made arrangements with the impresario Emil Gutmann for the symphony to be premiered in Munich in the autumn of 1910. He soon regretted this involvement, writing of his fears that Gutmann would turn the performance into “a catastrophic Barnum and Bailey show”.Preparations began early in the year, with the selection of choirs from the choral societies of Munich, Leipzig and Vienna. The Munich central-Singschule provided 350 students for the children’s choir. Meanwhile Bruno Walter, Mahler’s assistant at the Vienna Hofoper, was responsible for the recruitment and preparation of the eight soloists.

Year 1910. Impresario Emil Gutmann, program from 05-1910 in the Musik-Festhalle, Munich with 1910 Concert Munich 12-09-1910 – Symphony No. 8 (Premiere).

Through the spring and summer these forces prepared in their home towns, before assembling in Munich early in September for three full days of final rehearsals under Mahler. His youthful assistant Otto Klemperer remarked later on the many small changes that Mahler made to the score during rehearsal: “He always wanted more clarity, more sound, more dynamic contrast. At one point during rehearsals he turned to us and said, ‘If, after my death, something doesn’t sound right, then change it. You have not only a right but a duty to do so.”

For the premiere, fixed for 12-09-1910, Gutmann had hired the newly built Neue Musik-Festhalle, in the Munich International Exhibition grounds near Theresienhöhe (now a branch of the Deutsches Museum). This vast hall had a capacity of 3,200; to assist ticket sales and raise publicity, Gutmann devised the nickname “Symphony of a Thousand”, which has remained the symphony’s popular subtitle despite Mahler’s disapproval. Among the many distinguished figures present at the sold-out premiere were the composers Richard Strauss, Camille Saint-Saëns and Anton Webern; the writers Thomas Mann and Arthur Schnitzler; and the leading theatre director of the day, Max Reinhardt. Also in the audience was the 28-year-old British conductor Leopold Stokowski, who six years later would lead the first United States performance of the symphony. 1910 Concert Munich 12-09-1910 – Symphony No. 8 (Premiere)

Year 1910. Poster for world premiere of Gustav Mahler’s 8th Symphony in Der neue Musik Festhalle, Munich, Germany. 1910 Concert Munich 12-09-1910 – Symphony No. 8 (Premiere). Alfred Roller (1864-1935).

Letter from Mahler to Emil Gutmann.

More information about Emil Gutmann (1877-1938) can be found in the biography of film director Fritz Lang 1890-1976 written by Andreas Weigel.