Maestros and their motor cars (40): Mahler’s Tina

Peter Owen says:

It’s not widely known that when Mahler wrote this masterpiece he used the pseudonym Thurlow Lieurance.

David K. Nelson says:

As the Victor label’s “VE” indicates this is an electrical recording, made in 1926, and while the song itself is not a timeless classic, we can at least glean a clear sense of her voice, timbre, and talents, quite well preserved at age 65. While her link to Mahler is of course significant and interesting, so too is the fact that we are listening to a voice that made its professional debut (alto solo in Beethoven’s 9th) in 1876, and sang the Alto Rhapsody with Brahms in the audience under the baton of Hans von Bülow in 1887. We have many recorded voices from that era, fortunately, but most of them are acoustic 78s which present a greater challenge in judging the voice.

Rich C. says:

True ES-H story. She was attempting to make a stage entrance but couldn’t squeeze by some sets. A stagehand said “Why don’t you try is sideways lady”? She replied, “I haft no sidevays”