One hundred years ago today, the composer Gustav Mahler died at the Loew Sanatorium in Vienna—just weeks after being diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis.
Strangely enough, there’s a Spokane connection: Mahler’s widow, Alma, married Walter Gropius in 1915; after founding the Bauhaus school in Weimar, Germany, Gropius chaired the architecture department at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. While there, he taught Royal McClure, Bill Trogdon, and Bruce Walker—each of whom returned to Spokane and made an indelible mark on the city’s architecture.
You can read all about it here.
In the meantime, enjoy “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz,” the fourth movement of Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer (mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis):
[audio:https://helveticka.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/08-Die-zwei-blauen-Augen-von-meinem-Schatz.mp3|titles=08 Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz]