Madam, - I refer to recent correspondence regarding the gradual acceptance of Mahler's music in the 20th century.
The December 1949 and January 1950 issues of The Gramophone included two articles by R.W. Baker on Bruckner and Mahler. The author's aim was to promote, if not introduce, the work of these late Viennese masters to British readers - "composers who to all intents and purposes are unknown to the majority of music lovers in this country". He called for a change of attitude on the part of conductors, orchestras, promoters and record companies in the face of what he considered to be unwarranted neglect.
Mr Baker concludes his second piece (on Mahler): "All the music which has been discussed in these articles is rarely performed in this country. When it is played, usually a visiting conductor fights an uphill battle with an orchestra which is unfamiliar with, or indifferent to, the music."
Earlier in the same article the author's impartiality slips. Seeing Mahler as the apotheosis of late Romanticism, he sadly notes that "after him came the barren desert of the atonality of Schönberg and his disciples".
If any reader would like a copy of those interesting period pieces perhaps I can be contacted through your good self. - Yours, etc,
BRIAN HOGAN, Portobello, Dublin 8.