Mahler

Prompted by bbv tv recordings of symphonies 2(resurrection) and 6(tragic) at the Barbican with Valery Gergiev condcuting the London Symphony Orchestra.

Gustav Mahler - his life Gustav Mahler was born on 7 July 1860 in Bohemia and died on 18 May 1911 aged 50. His father was an innkeeper, and Gustav was the second of 14 children, though many of his siblings died as children, and his musical gifted brother Otto committed suicide in 1895. In 1901 he married Alma Schindler and they had two daughters together, Anna and Maria. His early marriage seemed to be happy, and some love themes in his works depict Alma or his relationship with her. Strains began to show in their marriage after the tragic death of Maria, aged four, following completion of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. On top of this he was diagnosed with a fatal heart condition and subject not just to musical criticism but also public expressions of anti-Semitism. Some years later, when Mahler's works were beginning to receive a certain recognition, Alma had succumbed to alcoholism. At the sanatorium where she was treated she met and had an affair with Walter Gropius. A life so full of tragic events clearly had a major influence on much of Mahler's output, though there is also much in his music which expresses joy and hope. Mahler has said that his music is about life, and there is clearly an autobiographical aspect to his works, where a "hero" struggles with the meaning of life, death, love and disappointment. However, Mahler withdrew any programmatic comments he had previously made about his compositions saying that they should be appreciated as pure music and this is indeed the best approach.   Mahler's musical career: As a child, Mahler was exposed to many musical influences including military music in a local barracks, folk music of various forms at various events, local musicians playing in his father's tavern and Jewish bands. Although his family were Jewish he was a chorister in a Catholic Church where he also learned piano from the choir master. He won prizes as a pianist and obtained a place in the Vienna Conservatory. Although always interested in composing, and having composed a number of works before the age of 20 (most now lost), he pursued a successful career as a concert or opera conductor, including posts at Kassel, Prague, Budapest, Hamburg, Leipzig, Vienna, and latterly regular visits to New York. The hugely successful Vienna post, at the height of his conducting career, he secured by converting to Catholicism, and held for 10 years. To the outside world, composing was a sideline and his works frequently being met with disbelief from critics and public alike. His success as a conductor was without doubt and, in that occupation, he also had a reputation for being uncompromising. However, composing was his first love and he developed a routine for composing first at Steinbach during the summer, then at Carinthia at a retreat specially built for that purpose, and later at Tobalch in the Tyrol.   His works: Mahler's major works are his symphonies and song-cycles, though these two genres overlap. Several of his symphonies having voices and choruses and Das Lied von der Erde can be considered to be a hybrid work, which Mahler did not want to overtly call a Symphony because of the superstitious observation that Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner died after completing their 9th symphony. For many years his symphonies had a reputation for being difficult, by virtue not only of their technical demands, but also because of their length and need for considerable resources. However, most major orchestras play Mahler works these days, even including many youth and amateur orchestras. His Symphonies are often divided into 3 or more groupings, although with differing opinions on the boundaries between these groupings. The first 4 or 5 symphonies are referred to as the Wunderhorn symphonies because of the use of thematic material which appears in the Wunderhorn song cycle. The 5th through 7th come from a mature middle period with interleaving tragic and optimistic elements. Das Lied von der Erde, the 9th and 10th are the late period exhibiting greater complexity, modernistic trends and with increasing thoughts of death. The 8th can be grouped both ways or considered as a stand-alone work. Perhaps the most well-known work of Mahler's is the Adagietto to his 5th symphony which was used in Visconti's film "Death in Venice".