{{Short description|Australian violinist (1898–1943)}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} thumb|right|Alma Moodie, {{ca}} 1923 '''Alma Mary Templeton Moodie''' (12 September 1898<ref name="altenberg">{{cite web|url=http://www.altenbergtrio.at/?site=archive_ensemble&triofilter=e&lp=fr|title=Altenberg Trio Wien – Ensemble-Datenbank|first=Altenberg Trio|last=Wien|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202123/http://www.altenbergtrio.at/?site=archive_ensemble&triofilter=e&lp=fr|url-status=live}}</ref>{{spaced ndash}}7 March 1943) was an Australian violinist who established an excellent reputation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.<ref name="flesch">{{cite web|url=http://www.jose-sanchez-penzo.net/cfflesch/|title=Carl F. Flesch Home Page|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320033102/http://www.jose-sanchez-penzo.net/cfflesch/|archive-date=20 March 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Joseph Szigeti in "Szigeti on the Violin" refers to her as "The fine Australian violinist, Alma Moodie, little known outside Germany ..."</ref> She was regarded as being among the foremost female violinists during the inter-war years, along with such players as Erica Morini, Jelly d'Arányi and Kathleen Parlow;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.carl-flesch.de/cflesch_hom.html|title=Carl Flesch by José Sánchez-Penzo|first=José|last=Sánchez-Penzo|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126204853/http://www.carl-flesch.de/cflesch_hom.html|archive-date=26 November 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> and she premiered violin concertos by Kurt Atterberg, Hans Pfitzner and Ernst Krenek. She and Max Rostal were considered the best pre-war proponents of the Carl Flesch tradition.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alois-kottmann.de/E/kottmann_preis.php|title=Kottmann Prize|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=18 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418101840/http://www.alois-kottmann.de/E/kottmann_preis.php|url-status=live}}</ref> She became a teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. However, Alma Moodie made no recordings,<ref name="dreyfus">Dreyfus, F. K. (2003). ''Alma Moodie and the landscape of giftedness''. Australasian Music Research, '''7''', 1–14</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Apr03/ciampi.htm|title=Ciampi and Astruc recital [JW]: Classical CD Reviews- Apr 2003 MusicWeb(UK)|first=Music on the|last=Web(UK)|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191032/http://www.musicweb-international.com/classRev/2003/Apr03/ciampi.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and she appears in very few reference sources. Despite her former renown, her name became virtually unknown for many years. She appeared in earlier editions of Grove's and Baker's Dictionaries, but does not appear in the more recent editions.<ref name="flesch" />
== Biography ==
Alma Mary Templeton Moodie was born on 12 September 1898 in regional Queensland, Australia, the daughter of William Templeton Moodie and his wife Susan (née McClafferty).<ref name="NLA Mount Morgan">{{cite news | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article190080800 | title = The Mount Morgan Musical Wonder | newspaper = Gympie Times And Mary River Mining Gazette | volume = XXXVI | issue = 4748 | location = Gympie, Qld | date = 22 October 1904 | accessdate = 16 January 2017 | page = 6 | via = National Library of Australia | archive-date = 18 January 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230118024516/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/190080800 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Record details of Alma Mary Templeton Moodie|url=https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/details/77d637a914f846043f8da50cf442b2db6f0a6a9d151925cb8851ab358d274826|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614091053/https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/details/77d637a914f846043f8da50cf442b2db6f0a6a9d151925cb8851ab358d274826 |archive-date=14 June 2020 |access-date=2020-06-14|website=Births Deaths and Marriages|publisher=Queensland Government|language=en-AU}}</ref> Some sources say she was born in Mount Morgan,<ref name=dreyfus /><ref>{{cite news|date=5 November 1904|title=A Musical Wonder.|page=3|newspaper=Warwick Examiner And Times|location=Queensland, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82244387|access-date=14 June 2020|via=Trove|archive-date=18 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118024508/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/82244387|url-status=live}}</ref> others in Rockhampton.<ref name=altenberg /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://djaco.bildung.hessen.de/termine/gedenktag/september/index.html#anker_12|title=Hessischer Bildungsserver|website=djaco.bildung.hessen.de|access-date=27 August 2019|archive-date=26 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150726221928/http://djaco.bildung.hessen.de/termine/gedenktag/september/index.html#anker_12|url-status=live}}</ref>
She was an only child. Her father, an ironmonger from Ayrshire, Scotland, died on 9 July 1899, when she was less than one year old.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Record details of William Templeton Moodie|url=https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/details/8947c267854c5c6364c7e53438cfcb6bbcc71bab28a5511f201f5d1f11bbee64|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614090849/https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/details/8947c267854c5c6364c7e53438cfcb6bbcc71bab28a5511f201f5d1f11bbee64 |archive-date=14 June 2020 |access-date=2020-06-14|website=Births Deaths and Marriages|publisher=Queensland Government|language=en-AU}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|date=11 July 1899|title=Family Notices|page=4|newspaper=The Brisbane Courier|location=Queensland, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3697312|access-date=14 June 2020|via=Trove|archive-date=18 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118024518/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3697312|url-status=live}}</ref> Her mother, a music teacher, was the daughter of Irish immigrants.<ref name="NLA 7 Jul">{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106296721 |title=Rockhampton, Qld |newspaper=The Catholic Press |issue=603 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=11 July 1907 |accessdate=16 January 2017 |page=22 |via=National Library of Australia |archive-date=18 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118024535/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/106296721 |url-status=live }} Note: includes a photo of Alma Moodie</ref>
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.<ref name="NLA 7 Jul" /><ref name="NLA Mount Morgan" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dhage-ludwig-5973|title=Australian Dictionary of Biography|first=Lorna L.|last=McDonald|chapter=D'Hage, Ludwig (1863–1960)|publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University|access-date=6 February 2017|via=Australian Dictionary of Biography|archive-date=6 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105314/http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dhage-ludwig-5973|url-status=live}}</ref> She appeared in public recitals at age 6 – a performance in Rockhampton in October 1904 was described by a local reporter from ''The Morning Bulletin'', "Her rendering of Renard's 'Berceuse,' accompanied on the piano by Herr Hage, showed the possibility of surprising musical gifts being developed at an extremely young age. The executive ability displayed in this, and an encore piece – 'Canzonetta' (Daube) – was certainly remarkable."<ref name="NLA 4 Oct">{{cite news | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53029789 | title = Orpheus Club Concert. An Undoubted Success. | newspaper = The Morning Bulletin | volume = LXVI | issue = 12123 | location = Rockhampton, Qld | date = 14 October 1904 | accessdate = 16 January 2017 | page = 6 | via = National Library of Australia | archive-date = 18 January 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230118024505/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/53029789 | url-status = live }}</ref> In 1905 she passed her violin examinations with distinction achieving the maximum score.<ref>{{cite news|date=22 July 1905|title=THE MUSICAL EXAMINATIONS. THE ROYAL ASSOCIATED BOARD'S RESULTS.|page=8|newspaper=Morning Bulletin|location=Queensland, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article53045743|access-date=14 June 2020|via=Trove|archive-date=18 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118024511/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/53045743|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1907, aged 9, she gained a scholarship to the Brussels Conservatory,<ref name="NLA 7 Jul" /><ref name=morgan /> where she studied with Oskar Back for three years, under the general guidance of César Thomson (later, when she had achieved fame, Back and Thomson would both claim to have been her primary teacher).<ref name=dreyfus /> 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, who, after hearing her play, wrote to his patron Duke George of Sachsen-Meiningen: {{blockquote|Today a 13-year-old girl <small>''[she was actually 15 at the time]''</small> — 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.<ref name=dreyfus />}}
In Meiningen, Eisenach and Hildburghausen Alma Moodie played concertos with Reger conducting,<ref name=dreyfus /> and she appeared in recital with him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hermann-zilcher.de/Personalia/Kunstler/body_kunstler.html|title=Kunstler}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Reger also recommended her to other concert organisers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/reger,-max.-,-ten-autograph-letters-signed-rege-1-c-qebdeoy2h2|title=Reger, Max. , Ten autograph letters signed (|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=22 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160922183946/http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/reger,-max.-,-ten-autograph-letters-signed-rege-1-c-qebdeoy2h2|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1914, he dedicated to her his ''Präludium und Fuge'' for solo violin, Op. 131a, No. 4.<ref name=dreyfus /> The Regers had no children, and Max and Alma became like father and daughter 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.<ref name=dreyfus /> The Moodies stayed in Meiningen for the first few months of the war, and then moved to Brussels. Reger died in 1916, without ever seeing Alma again.<ref name=dreyfus /> 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.<ref name=dreyfus />
Alma returned to Germany in October 1918, where she lived in a 12th-century castle 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 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').<ref name=dreyfus />
She made Germany her home, and never returned to Australia.<ref name=dreyfus /><ref name=morgan /> In Berlin on 6 November 1919, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Max von Schillings, she premiered the Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 7 of Kurt Atterberg.<ref name=dreyfus /> 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'.<ref name=dreyfus />
From 1922 (or earlier), the Swiss businessman Werner Reinhart became a driving force in her career and she became a regular visitor to his homes in Winterthur 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 Guarnerius violin that had previously been owned by Fritz Kreisler.<ref name=dreyfus /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.guarneri.net/filesite/pages/guarneri/instruments4.html|title=Instruments by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu as listed by Hill|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113044848/http://www.guarneri.net/filesite/pages/guarneri/instruments4.html|archive-date=13 November 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=cozio1>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cozio.com/forum/Topic694-3-1.aspx |title=cozio.com |access-date=30 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101121233421/http://cozio.com/forum/Topic694-3-1.aspx |archive-date=21 November 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=cozio2>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cozio.com/forum/Topic1657-3-1.aspx |title=cozio.com |access-date=30 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521224401/http://www.cozio.com/forum/Topic1657-3-1.aspx |archive-date=21 May 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Through Reinhart, in 1923 she met the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, 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", those were two strings of the same voice. And she plays mostly Bach! Muzot has received its musical christening...."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://picture-poems.com/rilke/rilke-moodie-reinhardt.html|title=Rilke at Muzot (1923)|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=28 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328023311/http://picture-poems.com/rilke/rilke-moodie-reinhardt.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://people.cornell.edu/pages/hd11/RilkeMusicMetaph.html |title=R. M. Rilke – Music as metaphor |accessdate=6 February 2017 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109033449/http://people.cornell.edu/pages/hd11/RilkeMusicMetaph.html |archivedate=9 January 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://picture-poems.com/rilke/rilkebio.html|title=A Brief Rilke Biography|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=21 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170221084831/http://picture-poems.com/rilke/rilkebio.html|url-status=live}}</ref> And it was through Reinhart that she attended and performed at many of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)'s festivals.<ref name=dreyfus />
She championed the music of Hans Pfitzner<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/composersofnazie0000kate|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/composersofnazie0000kate/page/146 146]|quote=alma moodie 1900.|title=Composers of the Nazi Era: Eight Portraits|first=Michael H.|last=Kater|date=23 December 1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-509924-9|accessdate=6 February 2017|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> and he dedicated his Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 34 (1923) to her. She premiered it in Nuremberg, on 4 June 1924, with the composer conducting.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.robertaonthearts.com/id233.html|title=ASO – Complicated Friendship: Hans Pfitzner and Bruno Walter|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303212312/http://www.robertaonthearts.com/id233.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogue.php?id=130&season=2004-2005|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610070233/http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogue.php?id=130&season=2004-2005|title=American Symphony Orchestra|archivedate=10 June 2011}}</ref> Moodie became its leading exponent, and performed it over 50 times in Germany with conductors such as Pfitzner, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Hermann Scherchen, Karl Muck, Carl Schuricht, and Fritz Busch. At that time, the Pfitzner concerto was considered the most important addition to the violin concerto repertoire since the first concerto of Max Bruch, 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 Latvian pianist and composer Eduard Erdmann, for example in Pfitzner's Violin Sonata, which was dedicated to Moodie.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=12iihhdms_EC&q=moodie%20stravinsky&pg=PA287|title=Bartók and His World|first=Peter|last=Laki|date=1 January 1995|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-00633-4|access-date=21 September 2021|archive-date=18 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230118024540/https://books.google.com/books?id=12iihhdms_EC&q=moodie%20stravinsky&pg=PA287|url-status=live}}</ref> Erdmann's own Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 12 (1921) was dedicated to her, and she premiered it in Berlin in October 1921.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://claudet.club.fr/ExilBerlin/ErdmannEduard/ErdmannOeuvres.html|title=Eduard Erdmann|accessdate=6 February 2017|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920120251/http://claudet.club.fr/ExilBerlin/ErdmannEduard/ErdmannOeuvres.html|archivedate=20 September 2008}}</ref> The Australian-English critic Walter J. Turner 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 sonatas.<ref name=dreyfus />
Ernst Krenek married Anna Mahler (the daughter of Gustav Mahler) 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. In the meantime, Krenek's marriage to Anna Mahler had collapsed, and their divorce became final a few days after the premiere.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/concerto-for-violin-orchestra-no-1-op-29|title=Answers – The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions|website=Answers.com|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=10 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180710041235/http://www.answers.com/topic/concerto-for-violin-orchestra-no-1-op-29|url-status=live}}</ref> Krenek did not attend the premiere, but he did have an affair with Moodie<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.classical-music.com/album-reviews|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120719132125/http://www.classical-music.com/album-reviews?id=21476|title=Reviews | Classical-Music.com|archive-date=19 July 2012|access-date=14 June 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> which has been described as "short-lived and complicated".<ref name=dreyfus /> 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''".<ref name=dreyfus /> Krenek also dedicated his Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 33 to Alma Moodie in 1924.
Igor Stravinsky arranged a suite of excerpts from ''Pulcinella'' 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.<ref name=dreyfus /> They also played it at Werner Reinhart's home in Winterthur. Stravinsky described her as "excellent".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/igorstravinskyan002221mbp/igorstravinskyan002221mbp_djvu.txt|title=Full text of 'Igor Stravinsky An Autobiography'|year=1962|publisher=W W Norton & Company|accessdate=6 February 2017}}</ref> He may also have intended a pair of arrangements from ''The Firebird'' with Moodie in mind.<ref name=strav>{{Cite web |url=http://www.millertheatre.com/Pdf/ProgramNotes/Stravinsky%20notes%20by%20PG.pdf |title=Miller Theatre Program Notes |access-date=30 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714094910/http://www.millertheatre.com/Pdf/ProgramNotes/Stravinsky%20notes%20by%20PG.pdf |archive-date=14 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
Arthur Nikisch wrote of her to Carl Flesch 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 also heard her and held her in very high regard.<ref name=dreyfus />
Alma Moodie was considered one of the most important interpreters of Brahms's works for violin.<ref name=morgan>{{Cite web|url=http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/thesis/adt-QCQU/uploads/approved/adt-QCQU20050427.131849/public/10chapter9.pdf|title=Leisure and Entertainment: aspects of popular culture at Mount Morgan|date=24 August 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060824034900/http://library-resources.cqu.edu.au/thesis/adt-QCQU/uploads/approved/adt-QCQU20050427.131849/public/10chapter9.pdf|archive-date=24 August 2006|accessdate=14 June 2020}}</ref> Hermann Reutter quotes her as saying "One must be at least forty to understand the greatness and depth of expression in Brahms' music."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/composerspointof011244mbp/composerspointof011244mbp_djvu.txt|title=The Composer's Point of View}}</ref> Reutter participated in many concerts with Alma Moodie, and dedicated his ''Rhapsodie'' for violin and piano, Op. 51 (1939), to her.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.schott-music.com/shop/noten/streichinstrumente/violine/violine_klavier/show,33685.html|title=Schott Music – Shop – Hermann Reutter – Rhapsodie|date=27 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927095118/http://www.schott-music.com/shop/noten/streichinstrumente/violine/violine_klavier/show,33685.html|archive-date=27 September 2011}}</ref>
On 18 December 1927, she married Alexander Balthasar Alfred Spengler,<ref>Grove V calls him "Stengler"</ref> a German lawyer, becoming the third of his six wives, and they had two children. They initially lived in Cologne. He was indifferent to her career, and she was tired from incessant travelling, so she performed less often after that.<ref name=dreyfus /> She taught violin at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, where she continued Carl Flesch's teaching tradition.<ref name=dreyfus /> Her students included Günter Kehr, Maria Thomán (daughter of István Thomán), Lea Luboshutz, May Harrison, Irma Seyde and Thelma Given.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.biggerbooks.com/bk_detail.aspx?isbn=9781879395183|title=Bigger books.com|access-date=30 November 2008|archive-date=18 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718045943/http://www.biggerbooks.com/bk_detail.aspx?isbn=9781879395183|url-status=live}}</ref>
Spengler was often travelling abroad; 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.
Alma Moodie died on 7 March 1943, aged 44, during an air raid on Frankfurt,<ref name=altenberg /><ref name=dreyfus /><ref>Grove's and Baker's Dictionaries</ref> although the bombs were not the cause of her death. A doctor reported that she died accidentally of a thrombosis brought on by the mixture of alcohol and pills she had taken, but a number of her close friends believed her death to be suicide.<ref name=dreyfus /><ref name=cozio1 /> 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".<ref name=dreyfus />
== Concerto performances == In addition to the performances mentioned above, Alma Moodie's appearances included: * Bach Double Violin Concerto in D minor **with Georg Kulenkampff and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) (15 December 1927)<ref name=dreyfus /> **with Riele Queling and the BPO under Wilhelm Furtwängler (Berlin, December 1933)<ref name=furt /> * Bach Concerto in E major **at the Musikkollegium (Winterthur, 25 October 1922)<ref name=dreyfus /> **with Furtwängler (Hamburg, 1933)<ref name=furt /> * Brahms Concerto in D major: **with the Meininger Hofkapelle under Max Reger (Eisenach, 6 December 1913; Hildburghausen, 7 December; Meiningen, 9 December; at these concerts she also played Reger's ''Suite im alten Stil'', Op. 93, with the composer at the piano)<ref name=dreyfus /> **under Volkmar Andreae (Zürich, November 1921) **with the London Symphony Orchestra under Bruno Walter (London) * Busoni concerto (London, 1934)<ref name=Grove>Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed.</ref> (this is possibly the same occasion as her appearance in London on 12 April 1934 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.concertprogrammes.org.uk/index.php?|title=Search|accessdate=6 February 2017}}{{dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>) * Dvořák Concerto in A minor (Duisburg, October 1921; Carl Flesch made a detour in his own touring schedule just to hear her)<ref name=dreyfus /> * Glazunov Concerto in A minor with Furtwängler (Vienna, November 1921)<ref name="furt">{{Cite web |title=Société Wilhelm Furtwängler – L'homme, l'association et son actualité |url=https://furtwangler.fr/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210221751/https://furtwangler.fr/ |archive-date=10 February 2021 |access-date=14 June 2020}}</ref> * Lalo ''Symphonie espagnole'', BPO (Berlin, 12 December 1919)<ref name=dreyfus /> * Mendelssohn Concerto in E minor with Furtwängler (Leipzig, 1923)<ref name="furt" /> * Mozart "D major concerto" (this could refer to either No. 2 or No. 4) under Peter Hagel, BPO (Berlin, 12 December 1919)<ref name=dreyfus /> * Paganini D major concerto under Max von Schillings, BPO (Berlin, 6 November 1919)<ref name=dreyfus /> * Pfitzner Concerto in B minor (Berlin and Leipzig 1924; her 50th performance was in Flensburg, March 1929; Gewandhaus, Leipzig, January 1935)<ref name=dreyfus /><ref name=furt /> * Max von Schillings's Violin Concerto, Op. 25, composer conducting BPO (Berlin, 12 December 1919)<ref name=dreyfus />
== Posthumous recognition == In 1943, Karl Höller wrote his Violin Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 33 in memory of Alma Moodie.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jean-laurent.com/index.php?lang=en&loc=en%2Fdownloads%2Fcd6.php|title=Jean Laurent – Stationen im Leben eines Musikers und Pädagogen|accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303214146/http://www.jean-laurent.com/index.php?lang=en&loc=en%2Fdownloads%2Fcd6.php|url-status=live}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?/classic/daily/stories/s2872423.htm|title=ABC Classic FM Music Details: Sunday 30 May 2010|website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |accessdate=6 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206105028/http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/printfriendly.pl?%2Fclassic%2Fdaily%2Fstories%2Fs2872423.htm|archive-date=6 February 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Osborne explained in a pre-performance interview broadcast on ABC Classic FM 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 pictures of her, but since learned there are some.{{cn|date=January 2023}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == *Dreyfus, Kay (2013). ''[http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/SLQ:SLQ_PCI_EBSCO:slq_alma21152367130002061 Bluebeard's Bride:]'' ''[http://onesearch.slq.qld.gov.au/SLQ:SLQ_PCI_EBSCO:slq_alma21152367130002061 Alma Moodie, violinist].'' Parkwood, Victoria: Lyrebird Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7340-3776-3}}.
== External links == * {{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/booksandarts/alma-moodie-violinist/5223198|title=Was Alma Moodie Australia's greatest violinist? - interview with Michael Cathcart and Kay Dreyfus, author of ''Bluebeard's Bride: Alma Moodie, Violinist''. Lyrebird Press (2013)|website=ABC Radio National|date=2 February 2014 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moodie, Alma}} Category:1898 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Musicians from Queensland Category:Australian expatriates in Germany Category:Royal Conservatory of Brussels alumni Category:Academic staff of Hoch Conservatory Category:20th-century Australian classical violinists Category:Australian women classical violinists Category:20th-century Australian women musicians Category:Drug-related deaths in Germany Category:Deaths from thrombosis