“At present I really couldn’t care less whether my things are performed or not.
For my own entertainment I compose now and again a symphony (or something like the amusing work I am involved in writing at this moment); but I understand very well that the world couldn’t care less about my amusements.
Living in an attic on a diet of potato peelings is no longer in fashion, otherwise I would certainly have had a go at that. In two weeks I hope to have finished my new work, and then it’s off to Vienna.”
- Gustav Mahler to Oskar Fried
The “amusing work” is his ninth symphony, which I will be hearing tonight, performed by the ensemble which introduced it to New York and Carnegie Hall.
