Alma Moodie
Encyclopedia
Alma Templeton Moodie was an Australian violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist who established an excellent reputation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. She was regarded as the foremost female violinist during the inter-war years, and she premiered violin concertos by Kurt Atterberg
Kurt Atterberg
Kurt Magnus Atterberg was a Swedish composer. He is best known for his symphonies, operas and ballets. Atterberg once said that: "The Russians, Brahms, Reger were my ideals." His music combines their influences with Swedish folk tunes.-Biography:Atterberg was born in Gothenburg as the son of the...

, Hans Pfitzner
Hans Pfitzner
Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...

 and Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...

. She and Max Rostal
Max Rostal
Max Rostal was a violinist and a viola player. He was Austrian-born, but later took British citizenship.-Biography:Max Rostal was born in Cieszyn and studied with Carl Flesch. He won the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1925...

 were regarded as the greatest proponents of the Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch was a violinist and teacher.Carl Flesch was born in Moson in Hungary in 1873. He began playing the violin at seven years of age. At 10, he was taken to Vienna, and began to study with Jakob Grün. At 17, he left for Paris, and joined the Paris Conservatoire...

 tradition. She became a teacher at the Hoch Conservatory
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...

 in Frankfurt. However, Alma Moodie made no recordings, and she appears in very few reference sources. Despite her former renown, her name has become virtually unknown. She appeared in earlier editions of Grove's and Baker's Dictionaries, but does not appear in the more recent editions.

Biography

The facts of Alma Moodie's life are often unclear from what little references to her appear in modern sources. Both the 5th edition of Grove's Dictionary (her article was written by Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge
Frank Bridge was an English composer and violist.-Life:Bridge was born in Brighton and studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1899 to 1903 under Charles Villiers Stanford and others...

), and the 5th edition of Baker's Dictionary (ed. Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky was a Russian born American composer, conductor, musician, music critic, lexicographer and author. He described himself as a "diaskeuast" ; "a reviser or interpolator."- Life :...

) say she was born in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 on 12 September 1900. However, other sources say she was born in Mount Morgan
Mount Morgan, Queensland
Mount Morgan is a town located in central Queensland, Australia. It is situated on the Dee River, 38 kilometres south of the city of Rockhampton, and is 680 kilometres north of the state capital, Brisbane. The Burnett Highway passes through the town...

 or in Rockhampton
Rockhampton, Queensland
Rockhampton is a city and local government area in Queensland, Australia. The city lies on the Fitzroy River, approximately from the river mouth, and some north of the state capital, Brisbane....

 on 12 September 1898. She grew up in Mount Morgan, only 28 km from Rockhampton (Brisbane is almost 700 km distant), so a birth in either Rockhampton or Mount Morgan seems more likely.

She was an only child. Her father, an ironmonger from Ayrshire
Ayrshire
Ayrshire is a registration county, and former administrative county in south-west Scotland, United Kingdom, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, died when she was one year old. Her mother, a music teacher, was the daughter of Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 immigrants.

She studied violin at Mount Morgan, being taught initially by her widowed mother from a very young age, and from the age of 5 by Louis D’Hage in Rockhampton. She appeared in public recitals at age 6. In 1907, aged 9, she gained a scholarship to the Brussels Conservatory, where she studied with Oscar Back (or Oskar Back) for three years, under the general guidance of César Thomson
César Thomson
César Thomson was a Belgian violinist, teacher and composer.He was born in Liège in 1857. At age seven, he entered the Liège Conservatory of Music, and studied under Jacques Dupuis and Lambert Massart. By age 16, he was considered to have "a technique unrivalled by any other violinist then living"...

 (later, when she had achieved fame, Back and Thomson would both claim to have been her primary teacher). She was accompanied by her mother, who remained with her until her death when Alma was aged 20. In 1913 she was recommended to Max Reger
Max Reger
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and academic teacher.-Life:...

, who, after hearing her play, wrote to his patron Duke George of Sachsen-Meiningen: Today a 13-year-old girl [she was actually 15 at the time] — English — played for me; hers is the biggest violin talent I have ever encountered. The 13-year-old played Bach solo sonatas for me, sonatas which are the most difficult to play of any in the whole literature of violin music ... I am not ashamed to admit that there were tears in my eyes while this delicate 13-year-old child played for me. Our Lord God has certainly created one of his miracles. In Meiningen
Meiningen
Meiningen is a town in Germany - located in the southern part of the state of Thuringia and is the district seat of Schmalkalden-Meiningen. It is situated on the river Werra....

, Eisenach
Eisenach
Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...

 and Hildburghausen
Hildburghausen
Hildburghausen is a town in Thuringia in central Germany, capital of the district Hildburghausen. It is situated on the river Werra, 20 km south of Suhl, and 25 km northwest of Coburg....

 Alma Moodie played concertos with Reger conducting, and she appeared in recital with him. Reger also recommended her to other concert organisers. In 1914, he dedicated to her his Präludium und Fuge for solo violin, Op. 131a, No. 4. The Regers had no children, and being fatherless, Alma treated Max Reger as her father for some time. Her mother had planned to return to Australia, leaving Alma in the care of Max and Elsa Reger, but the start of World War I meant she could not leave Europe. The Moodies stayed in Meiningen for the first few months of the war, and then moved to Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

. Reger died in 1916, without ever seeing Alma again. Times were very hard in Brussels for Alma and her mother. Alma became thin and ill, and claimed she did not touch her violin for four years. Her mother died of consumption or influenza in the spring of 1918.

Alma returned to Germany in October 1918, where she lived in a 12th century castle in the Harz
Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...

 mountains as ward of Fürst Christian Ernst zu Stolberg und Wernigerode. It is not known how she came to be associated with him. However, it was while here that she met her future husband. She wanted to resume her violin playing, which had badly deteriorated during the war, and made contact with Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch was a violinist and teacher.Carl Flesch was born in Moson in Hungary in 1873. He began playing the violin at seven years of age. At 10, he was taken to Vienna, and began to study with Jakob Grün. At 17, he left for Paris, and joined the Paris Conservatoire...

 in November 1919, who agreed to accept her as a pupil. She continued having lessons with Flesch throughout her travelling career and after the birth of her son. Flesch had a special fondness for Alma Moodie (he wrote ‘amongst all the pupils in my course I liked Alma Moodie best’).

She made Germany her home, and never returned to Australia. In Berlin on 6 November 1919, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Max von Schillings
Max von Schillings
Max von Schillings was a German conductor, composer and theatre director. He was chief conductor at the Berlin State Opera from 1919 to 1925....

, she premiered the Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 7 of Kurt Atterberg
Kurt Atterberg
Kurt Magnus Atterberg was a Swedish composer. He is best known for his symphonies, operas and ballets. Atterberg once said that: "The Russians, Brahms, Reger were my ideals." His music combines their influences with Swedish folk tunes.-Biography:Atterberg was born in Gothenburg as the son of the...

. In the 1922-23 season, she played ninety concerts, seventy of them in seven months, in a tour that took her to Switzerland, Italy, Paris, Berlin, and ‘the Orient’.

From 1922 (or earlier), the Swiss businessman Werner Reinhart
Werner Reinhart
Werner Reinhart was a Swiss industrialist, philanthropist, amateur clarinetist, and patron of composers and writers, particularly Igor Stravinsky and Rainer Maria Rilke...

 became a driving force in her career and she became a regular visitor to his homes in Winterthur
Winterthur
Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti...

 and other places, where she came into contact with most of the prominent names in the contemporary music scene of the day. It was Reinhart who gave her a Guarneri
Guarneri
The Guarneri is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati and Stradivari families...

us violin that had previously been owned by Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...

. Through Reinhart, in 1923 she met the poet Rainer Maria Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...

, who was greatly impressed with her playing. He wrote in a letter: What a sound, what richness, what determination. That and the "Sonnets to Orpheus
Sonnets to Orpheus
The Sonnets to Orpheus are a cycle of sonnets written by German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1922. He dedicated them as a memorial for Wera Ouckama Knoop , a playmate of Rilke's daughter Ruth.-Form and style:There are 55 sonnets in the sequence, divided into two sections: the first of 26...

", those were two strings of the same voice. And she plays mostly Bach! Muzot has received its musical christening....
And it was through Reinhart that she attended and performed at many of the International Society for Contemporary Music
International Society for Contemporary Music
The International Society for Contemporary Music is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.ISCM was established in 1922, in Salzburg. Its core activity is the World Music Days Festival, held every year at a different location. The festival includes cutting edge productions...

 (ISCM)'s festivals.

She championed the music of Hans Pfitzner
Hans Pfitzner
Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...

 and he dedicated his Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 34 (1923) to her. She premiered it in Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...

, on 4 June 1924, with the composer conducting. Moodie became its leading exponent, and performed it over 50 times in Germany with conductors such as Pfitzner, Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...

, Hans Knappertsbusch
Hans Knappertsbusch
Hans Knappertsbusch was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss....

, Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...

, Karl Muck
Karl Muck
Karl Muck was a German-born conductor of classical music. He based his activities principally in Europe and mostly in opera. His American career comprised two stints at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He endured a public outcry in 1917 that questioned whether his loyalties lay with Germany or the...

, Carl Schuricht
Carl Schuricht
Carl Adolph Schuricht was a German conductor.Schuricht was born in Danzig , German Empire; his father's family had been respected organ-builders. His mother, Amanda Wusinowska, a widow soon after her marriage , brought up her son alone...

, and Fritz Busch
Fritz Busch
Fritz Busch was a German conductor.Busch was born in Siegen, Province of Westphalia. He held posts conducting opera at Aachen, Stuttgart and Dresden. In 1933 he was dismissed from his post at Dresden because of his opposition to the new Nazi government of Germany...

. At that time, the Pfitzner concerto was considered the most important addition to the violin concerto repertoire since the first concerto
Violin Concerto No. 1 (Bruch)
Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26, is one of the most popular violin concertos in the repertoire. It continues to be performed and recorded by many violinists and is arguably Bruch's most famous composition.- History :...

 of Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...

, although it has slipped from the repertoire of most violinists these days.

Between 1921 and her death in 1943, Alma Moodie often appeared with the Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n pianist and composer Eduard Erdmann
Eduard Erdmann
Eduard Erdmann was a Baltic German pianist and composer.Erdmann was born in Wenden in Livonia. He was the great-nephew of the philosopher Johann Eduard Erdmann. His first musical studies were in Riga, where his teachers were Bror Möllersten and Jean du Chastain and Harald Creutzburg...

, for example in Pfitzner's Violin Sonata, which was dedicated to Moodie. Erdmann's own Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 12 (1921) was dedicated to her, and she premiered it in Berlin in October 1921. The Australian-English critic Walter J. Turner
Walter J. Turner
Walter James Redfern Turner was an Australian-born, English-domiciled writer and critic.Born in Melbourne, the son of a church musician, he was educated at a technical college in that city, but left for England to pursue a career in writing...

 wrote of a recital he heard them play in London in April 1934, ‘it was the best violin piano duo that I have ever heard’. Their last concert together was given on 4 March 1943, three days before her death, when they were in the middle of the cycle of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

 sonatas.

Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...

 married Anna Mahler
Anna Mahler
Anna Justine Mahler was an Austrian sculptor.-Early Life:Born in Vienna, she was the daughter of the composer Gustav Mahler and his wife Alma Schindler. They nicknamed her 'Gucki' on account of her big blue eyes...

 (the daughter of Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

) in March 1924, when Krenek was completing his Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 29. Alma Moodie assisted Krenek, not with the scoring of the violin part, but with getting financial assistance from Werner Reinhart at a time when there was hyper-inflation in Germany. In gratitude, Krenek dedicated the concerto to Moodie, and she premiered it on 5 January 1925, in Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...

. In the meantime, Krenek's marriage to Anna Mahler had collapsed, and their divorce became final a few days after the premiere. Krenek did not attend the premiere, but he did have an affair with Moodie which has been described as "short-lived and complicated". He never managed to hear her play the concerto, but he did "immortalize some aspects of her personality in the character of Anita in his opera Jonny spielt auf
Jonny spielt auf
Jonny spielt auf is an opera with words and music by Ernst Krenek about a jazz violinist. The work typified the cultural freedom of the 'golden era' of the Weimar Republic.-Performance history:...

". Krenek also dedicated his Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 33 to Alma Moodie in 1924.

Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

 arranged a suite of excerpts from Pulcinella
Pulcinella (ballet)
Pulcinella is a ballet by Igor Stravinsky based on an 18th-century play — Pulcinella is a character originating from Commedia dell'arte. The ballet premiered at the Paris Opera on 15 May 1920 under the baton of Ernest Ansermet. The dancer Léonide Massine created both the libretto and choreography,...

for violin and piano, calling it "Suite from themes, fragments and pieces by Pergolesi". Alma Moodie premiered it with the composer in Frankfurt on 25 November 1925, and they played it on a number of other public occasions. They also played it at Werner Reinhart's home in Winterthur. Stravinsky described her as "excellent". He may also have intended a pair of arrangements from The Firebird
The Firebird
The Firebird is a 1910 ballet created by the composer Igor Stravinsky and choreographer Michel Fokine. The ballet is based on Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird of the same name that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor....

with Moodie in mind.

Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch
Arthur Nikisch ; 12 October 185523 January 1922) was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London and - most importantly - Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Liszt...

 wrote of her to Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch was a violinist and teacher.Carl Flesch was born in Moson in Hungary in 1873. He began playing the violin at seven years of age. At 10, he was taken to Vienna, and began to study with Jakob Grün. At 17, he left for Paris, and joined the Paris Conservatoire...

 from Leipzig in December 1925: For me, this girl is a phenomenon artistically so delightful that I regard it as my natural duty to promote the interests of this blessed creature as much as I am able. Leopold Auer
Leopold Auer
Leopold Auer was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor and composer.-Early life and career:...

 also heard her and held her in very high regard.

Alma Moodie was considered one of the most important interpreters of Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

's works for violin. Herman Reutter quotes her as saying "One must be at least forty to understand the greatness and depth of expression in Brahms' music." Reutter participated in many concerts with Alma Moodie, and dedicated his Rhapsodie, Op. 51 (1939), to her.

On 18 December 1927, she married Alexander Balthasar Alfred Spengler, a German lawyer, becoming the third of his six wives, and they had two children. They initially lived in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

. He was indifferent to her career, and she was tired from incessant travelling, so she performed less often after that. She taught violin at the Hoch Conservatory
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...

, where she continued Carl Flesch's teaching tradition. Her students included Leah Luboschutz, May Harrison, Irma Seyde and Thelma Given.

Spengler was often travelling abroad, doing work for the Nazi regime in occupied countries; when he was home, he was demanding and unfaithful. Alma took to drinking and smoking, and found that she needed sleeping pills; later, her bow arm started to tremble uncontrollably, leading to more drinking and more sleeping pills. She died on 7 March 1943, aged only 44, during an air raid, although the bombs were not the cause of her death. A doctor reported that she died accidentally of a thrombosis
Thrombosis
Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel is injured, the body uses platelets and fibrin to form a blood clot to prevent blood loss...

 brought on by the mixture of alcohol and pills she had taken, but a number of her close friends believed she suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

d. Most sources say this occurred in Frankfurt, although one Australian source says she died in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

. Her obituary by the critic Karl Holl concluded: Her violin playing has been silenced. But it leaves behind a ring of rare purity. Her name will always remain as that of a feminine personality in the history of music.

Concerto performances

In addition to the performances mentioned above, Alma Moodie's appearances included:
  • Bach
    Johann Sebastian Bach
    Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

     Double Violin Concerto in D minor
    Double Violin Concerto (Bach)
    The Concerto for 2 Violins, Strings and Continuo in D Minor, BWV 1043, also known as the Double Violin Concerto or "Bach Double", is perhaps one of the most famous works by J. S. Bach and considered among the best examples of the work of the late Baroque period. Bach wrote it between 1730 and 1731...

    • with Georg Kulenkampff
      Georg Kulenkampff
      Georg Kulenkampff was one of the world's most prominent concert violinists, one of the best-known German virtuosi of the 1930s and 1940s. Widely considered one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Kulenkampff was known for his interpretations of works from the Romantic period...

       and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) (15 December 1927)
    • with Riele Queling and the BPO under Wilhelm Furtwängler
      Wilhelm Furtwängler
      Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...

       (Berlin, December 1933)
  • Bach Concerto in E major
    Violin Concerto in E major (Bach)
    The Violin Concerto in E major, BWV 1042, by Johann Sebastian Bach is a concerto for violin, strings and continuo in 3 movements:#Allegro with ritornello, with an overall structure like that of a da capo aria.#Adagio with an ground bass....

    • at the Musikkollegium (Winterthur
      Winterthur
      Winterthur is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. It has the country's sixth largest population with an estimate of more than 100,000 people. In the local dialect and by its inhabitants, it is usually abbreviated to Winti...

      , 25 October 1922)
    • with Furtwängler (Hamburg, 1933)
  • Brahms
    Johannes Brahms
    Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

     Concerto in D major
    Violin Concerto (Brahms)
    Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 is a violin concerto in three movements composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim...

    :
    • with the Meininger Hofkapelle under Max Reger
      Max Reger
      Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and academic teacher.-Life:...

       (Eisenach
      Eisenach
      Eisenach is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated between the northern foothills of the Thuringian Forest and the Hainich National Park. Its population in 2006 was 43,626.-History:...

      , 6 December 1913; Hildburghausen
      Hildburghausen
      Hildburghausen is a town in Thuringia in central Germany, capital of the district Hildburghausen. It is situated on the river Werra, 20 km south of Suhl, and 25 km northwest of Coburg....

      , 7 December; Meiningen
      Meiningen
      Meiningen is a town in Germany - located in the southern part of the state of Thuringia and is the district seat of Schmalkalden-Meiningen. It is situated on the river Werra....

      , 9 December; at these concerts she also played Reger's Suite im alten Stil, Op. 93, with the composer at the piano)
    • under Volkmar Andreae
      Volkmar Andreae
      Volkmar Andreae was a Swiss conductor and composer.Andreae was born in Bern. He received piano instruction as a child and his first lessons in composition with Karl Munzinger. From 1897 to 1900, he studied at the Cologne Conservatory and was a student of Fritz Brun, Franz Wüllner, and Friedrich...

       (Zürich
      Zürich
      Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

      , November 1921)
    • with the London Symphony Orchestra
      London Symphony Orchestra
      The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...

       under Bruno Walter
      Bruno Walter
      Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...

       (London)
  • Busoni
    Ferruccio Busoni
    Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...

     concerto (London, 1934) (this is possibly the same occasion as her appearance in London on 12 April 1934 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
    London Philharmonic Orchestra
    The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...

     under Sir Thomas Beecham
    Thomas Beecham
    Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...

    )
  • Dvořák
    Antonín Dvorák
    Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...

     Concerto in A minor
    Violin Concerto (Dvorák)
    Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 is a concerto for violin and orchestra composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1879. The concerto was premiered in 1883 by František Ondříček in Prague. He also gave the premieres in Vienna and London...

     (Duisburg
    Duisburg
    - History :A legend recorded by Johannes Aventinus holds that Duisburg, was built by the eponymous Tuisto, mythical progenitor of Germans, ca. 2395 BC...

    , October 1921; Carl Flesch
    Carl Flesch
    Carl Flesch was a violinist and teacher.Carl Flesch was born in Moson in Hungary in 1873. He began playing the violin at seven years of age. At 10, he was taken to Vienna, and began to study with Jakob Grün. At 17, he left for Paris, and joined the Paris Conservatoire...

     made a detour in his own touring schedule just to hear her)
  • Glazunov
    Alexander Glazunov
    Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...

     Concerto in A minor
    Violin Concerto (Glazunov)
    The Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 82, by Alexander Glazunov is one of his most popular compositions. Written in 1904, the concerto was dedicated to violinist Leopold Auer, who gave the first performance at a Russian Musical Society concert in St. Petersburg on February 15, 1905...

     with Furtwängler (Vienna
    Vienna
    Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

    , November 1921)
  • Lalo
    Édouard Lalo
    Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo was a French composer.-Biography:Lalo was born in Lille , in northernmost France. He attended that city's music conservatory in his youth. Then, beginning at age 16, Lalo studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Berlioz's old enemy François Antoine Habeneck...

     Symphonie espagnole
    Symphonie Espagnole
    The Symphonie espagnole in D minor, Op. 21, is a work for violin and orchestra by Édouard Lalo.-History:The work was written in 1874 for violinist Pablo de Sarasate, and premiered in Paris in February 1875....

    , BPO (Berlin, 12 December 1919)
  • Mendelssohn
    Felix Mendelssohn
    Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...

     Concerto in E minor
    Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn)
    Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 is his last large orchestral work. It forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time...

     with Furtwängler (Leipzig
    Leipzig
    Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

    , 1923)
  • Mozart
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

     "D major concerto" (this could refer to either No. 2
    Violin Concerto No. 2 (Mozart)
    Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major K. 211 was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1775. The concerto has the usual fast-slow-fast structure. The movements of the work have the tempo headings:# Allegro moderato# Andante# Rondeau, Allegro...

     or No. 4
    Violin Concerto No. 4 (Mozart)
    Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major K. 218 was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1775 in Salzburg. The autograph of the score is preserved in Biblioteka Jagiellońska, Kraków.- Structure :...

    ) under Peter Hagel, BPO (Berlin, 12 December 1919)
  • Paganini
    Niccolò Paganini
    Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...

     D major concerto
    Violin Concerto No. 1 (Paganini)
    The Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 6, was composed by Niccolò Paganini in Italy, probably between 1817 and 1818. The concerto reveals that Paganini's technical wizardry was fully developed...

     under Max von Schillings
    Max von Schillings
    Max von Schillings was a German conductor, composer and theatre director. He was chief conductor at the Berlin State Opera from 1919 to 1925....

    , BPO (Berlin, 6 November 1919)
  • Pfitzner
    Hans Pfitzner
    Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...

     Concerto in B minor (Berlin and Leipzig 1924; her 50th performance was in Flensburg
    Flensburg
    Flensburg is an independent town in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the region of Southern Schleswig...

    , March 1929; Gewandhaus
    Gewandhaus
    Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, Germany. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. The first Gewandhaus was built in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe. The second opened on 11 December 1884, and was destroyed in the...

    , Leipzig
    Leipzig
    Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

    , January 1935)
  • Max von Schillings
    Max von Schillings
    Max von Schillings was a German conductor, composer and theatre director. He was chief conductor at the Berlin State Opera from 1919 to 1925....

    's Violin Concerto, Op. 25, composer conducting BPO (Berlin, 12 December 1919)

Posthumous recognition

In 1943, Karl Höller
Karl Höller
Karl Höller was a German composer of the late Romantic tradition.-Biography:Karl Höller was born in Bamberg, Bavaria. He came from a musical family on both sides: his father Valentin Höller was the Bamberg Cathedral organist for 40 years, and his grandfather and great-grandfather were organists...

 wrote his Violin Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 33 in memory of Alma Moodie.

The Australian composer David Osborne wrote a violin concerto titled Pictures of Alma, which was premiered on 30 May 2010 by Rochelle Bryson and the Raga Dolls Salon Orchestra, at the Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Southbank Centre, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

. Osborne explained in a pre-performance interview broadcast on ABC Classic FM
ABC Classic FM
ABC Classic FM is a classical music radio station available in Australia, and internationally online. It is operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . It was established in 1976 as "ABC-FM", and later for a short time was known as "ABC Fine Music" , before adopting its current name...

that the work sought to depict Alma Moodie in music at various stages of her life. He named it Pictures of Alma as he understood there were no surviving visual pictures of her, but he has since learned there are.
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