Selected Members Engelbert
Pernerstorfer | Victor Adler | Richard
von Kralik | Heinrich
Friedjung Gustav Mahler composer, conductor Mahler first came into contact with the Pernerstorfer circle via Siegfried Lipiner. Victor Adler was hosting meetings at his home at the time that Mahler first entered the Circle. Apparently, Adler purchased a top quality piano for his house so that Mahler could practice on it. Further, he worked to find piano pupils for Mahler, providing Mahler with income while he attended the Vienna Conservatory. Mahler also played piano for Circle meetings. His friend Natalie Bauer-Lechner describes hearing him play Wagner's Die Meistersinger at Kralik's house. Mahler's interest in the circle reflects intense philosophical and metaphysical interests that were an integral part of his work as a composer and conductor. Mahler was influenced to some degree by Nietzsche; he uses one of Nietzsche's poems in his Third Symphony. He changed his opinion of Nietzsche in his later life, though; during his courtship of Alma Schindler he reacted with some horror to finding Nietzsche's complete works on her bookshelf and demanded that she burn them immediately. He certainly was influenced by Wagner. Besides conducting Wagner's work, Alma Mahler noted in her commentary on Mahler's letters that
Mahler was also quick to espouse Wagner's vegetarianism, writing in November of 1880 that
Mahler also shared with some other Circle members an interest in occult spiritualism. Engelbert
Pernerstorfer | Victor Adler | Richard
von Kralik | Heinrich
Friedjung
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