MINOR TO MAJOR
A new book brings long-overdue recognition to the Viennese composer Alma Mahler
‘All I love in a man is his achievement. The greater the achievement, the more I have to love him.’ These are the words of the 20th-century composer Alma Mahler, who aligned herself romantically with some of the leading creative figures of her age, including Gustav Mahler, the architect Walter Gropius, the writer Franz Werfel and the expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka. Erudite and perceptive, she became an irreplaceable muse to each of her lovers: Kokoschka was apparently so distraught when their affair ended that he commissioned a life-size doll to be made in her image.
Until now, accounts of Alma have tended to focus on the influence she had upon the men with whom she associated, overlooking the significance of her own musical output. Cate Haste has redressed this imbalance in a new biography, Passionate Spirit, which re-evaluates the composer’s legacy through decades of diary entries, epistolary correspondences and interviews with her granddaughter Marina.
Alma’s partners were affronted by her ambition, encouraging her instead to sublimate her talent into homemaking; her first husband Gustav Mahler told her that ‘the role of the “composer”, the “bread-winner” is mine; yours is that of the loving partner, the sympathetic comrade… you must surrender yourself to me unconditionally’. In this fascinating exploration, Haste paints a portrait of a woman who was born to triumph, not surrender. yasmin omar ‘Passionate Spirit: The Life of Alma Mahler’ by Cate Haste (£26, Bloomsbury) is published on 13 June.