Alma Moodie facts for kids

Alma Moodie (around 1923)

Alma Mary Templeton Moodie (born September 12, 1898 – died March 7, 1943) was an amazing violin player from Australia. She became very famous in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s. People thought she was the best female violinist between World War I and World War II.

Alma Moodie was the first to play new violin concertos by famous composers like Kurt Atterberg, Hans Pfitzner, and Ernst Krenek. She and another violinist named Max Rostal were known for following the teaching style of Carl Flesch, a very important violin teacher. Later, Alma became a teacher herself at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, Germany.

Even though she was very famous, Alma Moodie never made any recordings. Because of this, her name was almost forgotten for many years.

Early Life and Music

Alma Mary Templeton Moodie was born on September 12, 1898, in Queensland, Australia. Her father died when she was less than a year old. Her mother was a music teacher and taught Alma to play the violin from a very young age.

When Alma was five, she started learning from another teacher, Louis D’Hage, in Rockhampton. She gave her first public concerts at age six! A newspaper reporter wrote that her playing showed "surprising musical gifts." In 1905, she passed her violin exams with the highest possible score.

Studying in Europe

In 1907, when Alma was nine, she won a scholarship to study at the Brussels Conservatory in Belgium. She studied there for three years with Oskar Back. Her mother stayed with her in Europe until she passed away when Alma was 20.

Alma also met the famous composer Max Reger. She played concertos with him conducting, and they performed together. Reger even dedicated one of his pieces for solo violin to her in 1914. They became very close, like father and daughter.

World War I made life difficult for Alma and her mother in Brussels. Alma became very thin and ill. She later said she didn't touch her violin for four years during this tough time. Her mother died in 1918.

Starting Over in Germany

In October 1918, Alma returned to Germany. She wanted to play the violin again, but her skills had suffered during the war. In 1919, she began taking lessons with Carl Flesch, who was one of the most important violin teachers of that time. Flesch really liked Alma and said she was his favorite student. She continued to learn from him even after she became famous and had a child.

Alma decided to make Germany her home and never went back to Australia.

A Rising Star

Alma Moodie quickly became a star in Germany.

• In November 1919, she played the very first performance of Kurt Atterberg's Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
• In the 1922–23 concert season, she played 90 concerts! Seventy of these were in just seven months, during a tour that took her to Switzerland, Italy, Paris, Berlin, and other places.

Important Friends and Composers

From 1922, a Swiss businessman named Werner Reinhart helped Alma a lot with her career. She often visited his homes, where she met many important musicians and composers of the time. Reinhart even gave her a special Guarnerius violin that used to belong to the famous violinist Fritz Kreisler.

Through Reinhart, Alma met the poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1923. He was very impressed by her playing, especially when she played music by Bach. He wrote that her music and his poems felt like "two strings of the same voice."

Alma also played at many festivals for new music, called the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM).

Hans Pfitzner's Concerto

Alma Moodie was a big supporter of the composer Hans Pfitzner. He dedicated his Violin Concerto in B minor (written in 1923) to her. She played its first performance in Nuremberg in June 1924, with Pfitzner himself conducting.

Alma became the main performer of this concerto. She played it over 50 times in Germany with famous conductors like Wilhelm Furtwängler and Hans Knappertsbusch. At the time, people thought Pfitzner's concerto was the most important new violin concerto since Max Bruch's first concerto.

Collaborations with Eduard Erdmann

Between 1921 and her death in 1943, Alma Moodie often performed with the Latvian pianist and composer Eduard Erdmann. They were a fantastic duo. Erdmann dedicated his own Sonata for Solo Violin to her, and she played its first performance in Berlin in 1921.

One critic said they were "the best violin piano duo that I have ever heard." Their last concert together was just three days before Alma's death, when they were playing all of Beethoven's violin sonatas.

Ernst Krenek and Igor Stravinsky

Alma also helped the composer Ernst Krenek. She helped him get financial support from Werner Reinhart when Germany was going through a time of very high inflation. Because of her help, Krenek dedicated his Violin Concerto No. 1 to Alma. She played its first performance in January 1925. Krenek also dedicated his Sonata for Solo Violin to her.

The famous composer Igor Stravinsky arranged a suite of music from his ballet Pulcinella for violin and piano. Alma Moodie played the first performance of this piece with Stravinsky himself in Frankfurt in November 1925. They played it together many times, and Stravinsky called her "excellent."

High Praise from Other Musicians

Many other great musicians admired Alma Moodie.

• Arthur Nikisch, a famous conductor, wrote in 1925 that Alma was "a phenomenon artistically so delightful."
• Leopold Auer, another very important violin teacher, also thought highly of her.

Alma Moodie was also known for her performances of Johannes Brahms's violin music. The composer Hermann Reutter dedicated his Rhapsodie for violin and piano to her.

Later Life

In 1927, Alma Moodie married Alexander Balthasar Alfred Spengler, a German lawyer. They had two children. After getting married, she performed less often because she was tired from constant traveling. She started teaching violin at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, where she continued the teaching style of her former teacher, Carl Flesch. Many students learned from her, including Günter Kehr.

Alma Moodie passed away on March 7, 1943, at the age of 44. A critic wrote in her obituary: "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

Here are some of the other concertos Alma Moodie performed:

• Bach Double Violin Concerto in D minor
  • with Georg Kulenkampff and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (December 15, 1927)
  • with Riele Queling and the BPO under Wilhelm Furtwängler (December 1933)
• Bach Concerto in E major
  • at the Musikkollegium (Winterthur, October 25, 1922)
  • with Furtwängler (Hamburg, 1933)
• Brahms Concerto in D major:
  • with the Meininger Hofkapelle under Max Reger (Eisenach, December 6, 1913; Hildburghausen, December 7; Meiningen, December 9)
  • under Volkmar Andreae (Zürich, November 1921)
  • with the London Symphony Orchestra under Bruno Walter (London)
• Busoni concerto (London, 1934)
• Dvořák Concerto in A minor (Duisburg, October 1921)
• Glazunov Concerto in A minor with Furtwängler (Vienna, November 1921)
• Lalo Symphonie espagnole, BPO (Berlin, December 12, 1919)
• Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor with Furtwängler (Leipzig, 1923)
• Mozart "D major concerto" under Peter Hagel, BPO (Berlin, December 12, 1919)
• Paganini D major concerto under Max von Schillings, BPO (Berlin, November 6, 1919)
• Pfitzner Concerto in B minor (Berlin and Leipzig 1924; her 50th performance was in Flensburg, March 1929; Gewandhaus, Leipzig, January 1935)
• Max von Schillings's Violin Concerto, Op. 25, composer conducting BPO (Berlin, December 12, 1919)

Posthumous Recognition

Even after her death, Alma Moodie's music inspired others.

• In 1943, Karl Höller wrote his Violin Sonata No. 2 in G minor to remember Alma Moodie.
• Australian composer David Osborne wrote a violin concerto called Pictures of Alma. It was first performed in Melbourne, Australia, on May 30, 2010. Osborne wanted the music to show different parts of Alma Moodie's life.

Images for kids

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  Alma Moodie (ca. 1923)