Mahler is not the only food on the table


In that photo taken at the Vienna villa of the artist Carl Moll, probably in 1905, the guests at the al fresco dinner are, left to right, Max Reinhardt, Gustav Mahler, Moll and Hans Pfitzner. In response to my post Audience whoring is the blight of classical music, Lauri's List tweets "Hear hear! Mahler is great, but not the only food on the table. On An Overgrown Path tells it like it is". But the Good Luck Restaurant in Rochester, NY disagrees. As part of their Inspired Table dinner series, the restaurant presented last year a performance of a chamber arrangement of Mahler's Fourth Symphony as diners enjoyed a sumptuous five-course dinner. To quote the restaurant: "The dinner is inspired by the symphony's fourth movement, where a child presents his understanding of heaven as a feast for saints. The music will be performed throughout the evening". Come on Good Luck Restaurant, put some other food on the table. How about a curry evening accompanied by a chamber version of Nielsen's Fourth Symphony 'The Inextinguishable'?

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Comments

Pliable said…
For the sake of completeness it is worth noting that the person with their back to the camera is thought to be the architect Josef Hoffman.
2:52 pm
Jerome Langguth said…
Your Nielsen curry dinner idea is hilarious. How about a cheeseburger with fries accompanied by 4'33''?

Who says fast food can't be contemplative?

Jerome
3:05 pm
Pliable said…
Jerome, fact is stranger than fiction. Follow the link below for details of the lunch that I ate at a John Cage happening in Bruges a few years back which featured 'indeterminacy cooking' with individual menus decided by a random number generation program.

http://www.overgrownpath.com/2008/02/john-cage-was-really-happening-in.html
3:12 pm
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