Diether, Jack

Olin Downes was a music critic for the New York Times and the recipient of a letter from Jack Diether, a copy of which Dieter forwarded to Alma Mahler.

Jack Diether (1919-1987) was a noted musicologist and scholar.

He was especially known for his expertise of Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner. Over the years, although his major interests remained Mahler and Bruckner, he branched out into many other aspects of music. He was a regular contributor to Chord and Discord, Musical America, American Record Guide, The Villager, The Westsider / Chelsea Clinton News / East Side Express, and wrote articles and reviews for almost all the major music magazines and journals between 1955 and 1986. He also wrote articles for non-musical publications such as Film Quarterly, The Journal of Orgonomy, Psychoanalysis & The Psychological Review, and program notes for many orchestras.

He gave a number of lectures and wrote the scripts for six radio programs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, including the eight-part "The Life of Beethoven" and programs on Bruckner, Mahler, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Edward Elgar, and the film music of Bernard Herrmann. His record liner notes covered the musical field for almost every major record label. He was a member of the Gustav Mahler Society of America; Gustav Mahler Society, USA; Music Critics Association; National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; and the Dance Critics Association, for which he presented some panels on music, including one with conductors of dance music.

The New York Mahlerites, which he co-founded with Nancy Karlins Thoman in 1976, presented annual concerts from 1977 on, offering such rare works as Mahler's Piano Quartet movement, the Songs to Josephine, concert highlights from the Weber-Mahler Die Drei Pintos, and a dance version of "Blumine," choreographed and performed by ballerina Sallie Wilson. The Society, under his leadership, partly sponsored William Carragan's completion of the Bruckner Ninth Symphony, performed in 1985 by the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra and later released in a recording with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yoav Talmi on the Chandos label.