GUSTAV MAHLER (1860 - 1911)

Background
Gustav Mahler was born in Kalist, Bohemia, in 1860. He was the second child, and the first of fourteen to survive. After his birth, his family moved to Jihlava, where his father ran a tavern and distillery. He began learning the piano at age 6, giving his first public recital in 1870. He studied briefly in Prague, before entering the Vienna Conservatory in 1875.

The Vienna Conservatory
While at the Conservatory, he studied piano under J. Epstein, harmony under R. Fuchs, and composition with Franz Krenn. He became one of the earliest supporters of Anton Bruckner, declaring his music the most original to have appeared in many years. During his stay at the Conservatory, Mahler composed and played in performances of his piano quintet and violin sonata.

Early conducting success
After leaving the Conservatory, Mahler began his career as a conductor in 1880 in a series of provincial opera houses. During his post at Kassel in 1883-5 he had an unhappy love affair recorded in his song-cycle 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen' (Songs of a Wayfarer). He moved to Prague in 1885, and in the next year to Leipzig, where he became second conductor to the great conductor Artur Nikisch. During his period at Leipzig, he accepted an invitation from Weber's descendents to reconstruct Weber's unfinished opera 'Das drei Pintos'. The opera was a resounding success when it was first performed in 1888.


The Queensland Youth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Curro
In 1888, he became principal conductor of the Budapest Opera, where he displayed his genius as a conductor and administrator. In 1888 he became chief conductor of the Hamburg Opera, where he acquired and trained many fine singers, and introduced many new works. He took the company to London in 1892 for performances of Wagner's Ring and Tristan, and Beethoven's Fidelio.

Triumphs and downfall
After his conversion to Roman Catholicism, he became conductor of the Vienna Court Opera in 1897. He revolutionized the way opera was staged, and under his directorship, the Vienna Court Opera reached unprecedented heights of excellence.

In 1902, in what was to be an infamous mismatch, he married Alma Schindler, a musician twenty-two years his junior, daughter of the painter Anton Schindler and a composition pupil of Zemlinsky. They had two daughters, the eldest dying in 1907, aged 4.

Mahler described himself as 'three times homeless: a Bohemian amongst Austrians, an Austrian amongst Germans, and a Jew throughout the world', and indeed, his enemies in the anti-semetic press eventually led to his resignation from the Vienna Court Opera in 1907.

From 1907 onwards, a heart ailment cast a shadow over his activities. On January 1, 1908, he made his American debut conducting Wagner's Tristan and the New York Metropolitan Opera. He was appointed conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 1909. A severe blood infection in 1911 lead to his death on 18th May.

Compositional career
Mahler's conducting career was mainly concerned with opera, but his main compositional output consists of Lieder, song-cycles, and ten monumental symphonies, the last left uncompleted at his death. He accomplished most of his composition during his summer holidays spent at a villa he had built at Maiernigg on the Worthersee.

In 1889 he conducted the first performance of what is now known as his Symphony No. 1 - 'The Titan' - then described as a 'symphonic poem'. His 2nd Symphony, 'The Resurrection', was completed in 1894, and first performed in Berlin in 1895. During the years 1896-1907 he composed the Symphonies 3 to 8, and the song-cycle 'Kindertotenlieder' (Children's Death Songs). His massive song-symphony 'Das Lied van der Erde' (Song of the Earth) was first performed under Bruno Walter in Munich 1911. Walter also premiered the 9th symphony in Vienna 1912.

Although Mahler left his 10th symphony unfinished, he left extensive sketches and formal outlines for the work, allowing it to be completed by Deryck Cooke in 1960.

Mahler's symphonies were greeted with hostility at first, but thanks to the early advocacy of conductors such as Mengelberg and Walter, are now recognized as the very height of the Austro-German symphonic tradition. His genius lies in his ability to draw together wildly disparate elements - intense post-Wagnerian harmony, Austrian rusticism, child-like innocence, and a morbid fascination with death - into totally compelling musical structures. He championed the music of the younger generation of composers, and had a profound influence on modernist composers such as Shostakovich and Schoenberg. In Mahler's music, the 20th century has found expression of its hopes and fears.