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Music Amuses Did you know that the Adagietto from Mahler’s fifth symphony is a "musical LOVE LETTER"? The Adagietto from Mahler’s fifth symphony is considered by some to be the composer’s “musical love letter” for his wife Alma Schindler, a woman of extraordinary beauty and intellect. The famous conductor Willem Mengelberg claimed that both Mahler and Alma had told him privately that the Adagietto had been composed as a love token for her. Alma’s memoirs, however, make no reference to this. Some people find this quite odd, since Alma was fiercely proud of the pieces that Mahler wrote for her. In any case the Adagietto is a ravishing piece, lushly and eloquently scored for strings and harp – so much so that the film director Luchino Visconti made telling use of it in his 1971 movie version of Thomas Mann's novella “Death in Venice”. It was also the piece chosen to be played at the funeral of Robert Kennedy, former U.S. attorney general and younger brother of President John F Kennedy, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York in June 1968. At the CCOHK’s upcoming Twins on Winds concert this "love letter" will be presented together with other classical gems. Don’t miss the concert!
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