Mrs Mahler - may I take my jacket off?

Alma Mahler (above) - the beautiful wife of composer Gustav, whose affairs with the painters Klimt and Kokoschka, and the architect Walter Gropius, were legendary - once invited him to play in her house. "It was extremely hot, and I said to her, 'Mrs Mahler, may I take my jacket off?' She said, 'Mr Pressler, as far as I'm concerned, you can undress completely.'

Pianist and founder of the Beaux Arts Trio Menahem Pressler talking in today's Guardian. Alma Mahler is captured in song here.
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