ABSTRACT
Alfred Rosenzweig's polemic against Richard Wagner centres on his view of the inauguration of the Bayreuth Festival in 1876 as 'the most powerful cultural symbol of new-German imperialism' with its 'insane hunger for power'. One of Gustav Mahler's compositional plans for the eventually aborted operatic project Rubezahl, on whose libretto he worked in 1879, should be mentioned. It is the mythical story of the mountain spirit from the Silesian Riesengebirge or Krkonose mountains, which ironically would be used as a symbol of alienation by homesick Sudeten Germans who had migrated to West Germany. Whatever music Mahler composed for this opera project probably found its way into his songs and Symphony. Evidently the young Mahler was thoroughly steeped in the language, landscape, culture and music of his Czech surroundings, speaking the language fluently as a child, visiting relatives in nearby towns and villages, hearing music of military bands and itinerant Bohemian Musikanten.
