I Remember Mahler

William Malloch's « I Remember Mahler » , KPFK-FM (Pacifica Radio) , Los Angeles (1964)
Radio broadcast at one of the old Mahlerthons staged by the local Mahler Society.
Musicians who played in the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Gustav Mahler, and others who knew him at the time, reminisce about the great composer as conductor and man. One gets to hear vintage European and New York accents - mainly gone from the scene now. Max Steiner's Saxo-American accent is fairly hilarious. One can only wish to hear this orchestra as Mahler led it.
William F. Malloch, music-director of station KPFK (Pacifica Radio, 90.7 FM Los Angeles) and music-director of the Mahler Society of California, has that ardent mission to record history - likely wishing he were more a part of it. He was an excellent interviewer knowing when to just stay silent and listen.
KPFK (90.7 FM) is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, which serves the Greater Los Angeles Area. It was the second of 5 stations in the non-commercial, listener-sponsored Pacifica Radio network.
KPFK began broadcasting in April 1959, 12 years after the Pacifica Foundation was created by pacifist Lewis Hill, and 10 years after the network’s flagship station, KPFA, was founded in Berkeley. KPFK also broadcasts on KPFK-FM1 along the Malibu coast, K258BS (99.5 MHz FM) in China Lake, California, K254AH (98.7 MHz FM) in Santa Barbara, California.
Malloch was a music teacher at UCLA and the former artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival, longtime music-director of radio station KPFK and music-director of the Mahler Society of California for more than 15 years. Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he graduated from UC Berkeley in 1951, with post-graduate studies at Tanglewood and the Vienna Academy of Music. Winner of numerous awards for his radio documentaries, Malloch received special recognition for a commemorative recording, « Gustav Mahler Remembered » , first issued in 1967 and reissued 5 years later with Leonard Bernstein's recordings of Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5. Malloch's compositions include music for keyboard and symphonic wind ensembles, and he contributed numerous articles to « Opus » magazine and other publications. Mallock died of cancer on January 9, 1996, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 68.
Source of the audio-documents (public domain) : archive.org/de...
1) at 0:00 - Introductions (duration : 03:07)
2) at 3:07 - Mahler in Vienna (duration : 17:22)
3) at 20:29 - Mahler in the United States (duration : 07:40)
4) at 28:09 - Mahler's relations with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (duration : 04:01)
5) at 32:10 - Mahler and other composers (duration : 05:22)
6) at 37:32 - Treatment of the players (duration : 12:58)
7) at 50:30 - Fine points of Mahler interpretation (duration : 09:14)
8) at 59:44 Mahler's reorchestrations (duration : 03:44)
9) at 1:03:28 - Benjamin Kohon reminisces (duration : 09:58)
10) at 1:13:26 - Weiss incident ; Mahler and Tchaikovsky (duration : 09:25)
11) at 1:22:51 Mahler's relations with the public and the press (duration : 03:22)
12) at 1:26:13 - Random recollections (duration : 01:35)
13) at 1:27:48 - Anna Mahler remembers her father (duration : 07:04)
14) at 1:34:52 - Mahler and the musicians (duration : 11:36)

[@leestamm3187]

I would advise every Mahler devotee to take the time to hear this documentary. It's a valuable piece of history, not to be missed.

[@jeffreykalb9752]

Wonderful. That's all I have to say.

[@Bachsoboe]

Fascinating. Thank you for uploading.

[@user-nf2zb9zo4l]

I had this on a CBS LP in the mid 1960,s.......I remember some snippets, but this brings it all back...THANKYOU !!!!!!!

[@davidalegre-zb2or]

Such a treasure! Thank you so much for sharing it!!!

[@Twentythousandlps]

Columbia released an LP of excerpts with its Mahler symphony cycle under Bernstein.

[@culturalconfederacy]

Not a fan of Mahler, but found this post interesting

[@houlegilles27]

In the same vein ... Mahler Pioneers (SOMM Records) 2 interviews - ruclips.net/video/7vzYnFiQmOU/видео.html
(CD 2, track 9) 16 August 1962 : Renowned New York Philharmonic’s timpani player Alfred Friese (1876-1971) recounts his memories of Gustav Mahler in 1909. He is interviewed at his NYC home by american Mahler specialist, Jerry Bruck - accompanied by his wife, Jole. To obtain the transcript of this conversation, download the liner-notes PDF document at ... somm-recordings.com/recording/mahler-pioneers/
(CD 1, track 4) 8 April 1970 : Leopold Stokowski at his NYC office, in conversation with Jerry Bruck and Gerald Fox, recalls his memories of Mahler’s lifetime, beginning with the rehearsals of the Eighth Symphony in 1910 at the brand new Hall One of the Munich International Exhibition.

[@renzo6490]

I wonder if the title of this video is a word play on “I Remember Mama” by John Van Druten.