„Mein Orchester habe ich schon nervös gemacht.“

The Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books of the Austrian National Library contains a holding of interesting letters, written by the conductor Felix Mottl and addressed to the Countess Christiane Thun-Salm.

Felix Mottl (1856-1911), one of the most important conductors of his time, was a passionate enthusiast of Wagnerian music. During the course of his career, he became assistant and later conductor at the Bayreuth Festival, and musical director in Karlsruhe, conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and finally musical director in Munich and director of the Munich Opera.

Mottl first met the Countess Thun-Salm, who lived in Bohemia and Vienna, at the Bayreuth Festival of 1901. Mutual sympathy and the Countess’ wish to be in contact with important figures of cultural life – she was also corresponding with Hugo von Hofmannsthal – formed the basis of their long-standing exchange of letters. Countess Thun-Salm was a writer and Mottl showed interest in her novels and fairytales. But on the other hand, he also hoped that the Countess’ connections within Viennese society would help him attain the position of director of the Vienna Court Opera, at that time held by Gustav Mahler. Despite Countess Thun-Salm’s efforts, Mottl never achieved this goal. Their correspondence also dealt with the Wagner Family, in particular Cosima and Siegfried, the musical life of Karlsruhe, New York and Munich and – specifically concerning the latter – the state of competition between the Bayreuth Festival and the Munich Wagner performances. Mottl also wrote about the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, performances of Tristan in St. Petersburg and his problematic marriage with the singer Henriette Standthartner. Because Mottl had much confidence in the Countess Thun-Salm, he also confided his opinions about some of his contemporaries to her. In doing so, he displayed a certain kind of Viennese sarcasm, but some of his statements are also clearly anti-Semitic in nature (comments about Gustav Mahler and later about New York and Americans in general, for example).

Apart from a breakdown of the important issues contained within the letters and the transcript of the letters themselves, the book also contains numerous newspaper reviews and various appendices, providing detailed information about literary works, concerts and persons and the musical repertoire of the years 1901 to 1911.