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). Some sources say she was born in
Mount Morgan, others in
Rockhampton. 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. Her mother, a music teacher, was the daughter of Irish 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 – 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." In 1905 she passed her violin examinations with distinction achieving the maximum score. In 1907, aged 9, she gained a scholarship to the
Brussels Conservatory, 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. 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...." And it was through Reinhart that she attended and performed at many of the
International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)'s festivals. 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. 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. 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 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. Krenek did not attend the premiere, but he did have an affair with Moodie which has been described as "short-lived and complicated". He may also have intended a pair of arrangements from
The Firebird with Moodie in mind.
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.
Hermann 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 for violin and piano, 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. He was indifferent to her career, and she was tired from incessant travelling, so she performed less often after that. 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, 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. 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 ==