The Disastrous Dinne
The Disastrous Dinner – or when Richard Strauss came to visit It’s August 1909. In the little town of Alt-Schluderbach near Toblach, Gustav and Alma Mahler receive a message from Richard Strauss. He asks permission to visit by automobile, together with some buddies from his residence of Garmisch. The Mahlers say ‘yes, of course’ and are punished for their hospitality with an avalanche of telegrams about barometer readings in the Dolomites. Strauss, the sunny composer demands sunny weather. His persistence irritates the hosts, who have an high esteem of him as a composer, but consider him a problematic case as a human being. Things go wrong upon the arrival of Strauss and his party: when Gustav politely comes to greet them at their hotel, he is recognized by Richard’s wife Pauline, who bombards him with indiscrete questions on his health and the financial profits of his work in the USA. Money is important to the Strausses. Even worse: Strauss has brought some comrades from the ‘Schützen...