Mathilde Schönberg’s Letters – June 1907

Letters written by Mathilde to Schönberg from Gmunden in June 1907

The Schönbergs, accompanied by their two maidservants, had travelled to Gmunden on 26th, where Schönberg settled his family into Engelgut, Traunstein 22, a farmhouse, lying on the hillside meadows stretching down to the eastern bank of the Traunsee that would be their accommodation for the summer. Two days later, on 28th, he set off to join his students, Berg, Stein, Jalowetz, Krüger, Horwitz and Webern, in Dresden, where, after interventions from Mahler and Strauss, a matinee performance of op.7 had been reinstated for Sunday 30 June and at which the Rosé Quartet had taken over, to considerable acclaim, from the Petri Quartet. Schönberg plainly found the lake to his liking for, beginning in 1905, he stayed on the Traunsee six times. This was his second visit and when, probably on 1 July, he returned from Dresden to rejoin his family, he would have found several friends and family already in residence beneath the Traunstein (click for map). Zemlinsky and Ida, having honeymooned in Berchtesgaden and Salzburg, had arrived on 26th, settling in, with Zemlinsky’s and Mathilde’s mother, Clara and their maid at Traunstein 20. Ida’s sister, Melanie, and her American husband, the artist, William Clarke Rice, having married in 1905, were on a belated honeymoon and joined the Zemlinkys on 30th. The brothers, Robert and Artur Bodansky were to be found in the town from early July, as was Ernst Diez, at Hotel Schiff. Amongst Schönberg’s students, Irene Bien took a room in the Zemlinskys’ farmhouse, and, and whilst Berg spent the summer in Villach, it is possible that Viktor Krüger and others were also there at some point. Gerstl had been invited and he soon settled in at Feramühle.

It was during Schönberg’s brief trip to Dresden that Mathilde wrote twice – click on a link below to see the original letter, its transcription and its translation (all links open in a separate window):

1. Mathilde to Schönberg – 28 June 1907

2. Mathilde to Schönberg – 29 June 1907

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Click for one of the four periods of correspondence:
June 1907 ♦ ♦ June 1908 ♦ ♦ August 1908 ♦ ♦ November 1908

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