IN ALMA’S MUSIC SALON

So who would the young Alma Mahler have invited to a musical salon at the Vienna residence where she lived with her husband Gustav? Which composers would she have asked to perform their latest works in this intimate chamber setting? A little-known fact: Alma wrote music herself. But when she married Gustav, she had to give up her dreams of being a composer. This was a stipulation of Mahler’s. She studied composition with Zemlinksy, and was in close contact with Pfitzner, while Richard Strauss and his wife Pauline were frequent guests at the Mahler home. Sophie Heinrich and Paul Rivinius invite us into Alma’s salon. They play works by some of the “house guests”, and Heinrich is moderator for the evening.