Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler (July 7, 1860–May 18, 1911) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and conductor.

Biography

Gustav Mahler was born into a Jewish family in Kalischt, Bohemia. His parents moved to Jihlava, Moravia, Austro-Hungarian Empire where Mahler spent his childhood, in the first year of his life. Having noticed the boy's talent at an early age, his parents arranged piano lessons for him when he was six years old. In 1875, Mahler, then fifteen, was admitted to the Vienna Conservatoire where he studied piano under Julius Epstein. Three years later, Mahler attended Vienna University, where Anton Bruckner was lecturing. While at the university, he worked as a music teacher and made his first major attempt at composition with Das klagende Lied; the opera, which he later turned into a cantata, was entered in a competition, in which he was ultimately unsuccessful.

Related Topics:
Kalischt - Bohemia - Jihlava - Moravia - Austro-Hungarian Empire - 1875 - Piano - Vienna University - Anton Bruckner - Das klagende Lied - Cantata

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In 1880, Mahler began his work as a conductor with a job at a summer theatre at Bad Hall; in the years that followed, he took posts at successively larger opera houses: Ljubljana in 1881, Olomouc in 1882, Kassel in 1884, Prague in 1885, Leipzig in 1886 and Budapest in 1888. In 1887, he took over conducting Richard Wagner's Ring cycle from an ill Arthur Nikisch, firmly establishing his reputation among critics and the public alike. The year after he completed Carl Maria von Weber's unfinished opera Die drei Pintos, the success of which brought Mahler significant fame and income. His first long-term post came at the Hamburg Opera in 1891, where he stayed until 1897. While there, he took summer vacations at Steinbach-am-Attersee in Upper Austria, during which he concentrated on composition, completing his first symphony and most of the song cycle Lieder aus "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" (The Youth's Magic Horn), set to a collection of folk poems of the same name.

Related Topics:
1880 - Ljubljana - 1881 - Olomouc - 1882 - Kassel - 1884 - Prague - 1885 - Leipzig - 1886 - Budapest - 1888 - 1887 - Richard Wagner - Ring cycle - Arthur Nikisch - Carl Maria von Weber - Die drei Pintos - Hamburg Opera - 1891 - 1897 - Steinbach-am-Attersee - Upper Austria - First symphony - Song cycle - Lieder aus "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" - Folk poems

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In 1897, Mahler, then thirty-seven, was offered and accepted the directorship of the Vienna Opera, the most prestigious musical position in the Austrian Empire. He brought in his ten years there his fiery disposition, noted perfectionism, and inflexible will. While the works of the French composer Jules Massenet were in style when Mahler took over the Opera, by the time his time at the Opera was over, he had taught the public to revere the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Christoph Willibald Gluck. He ran the Opera for nine months of the year, spending the rest composing, mainly at Maiernigg, where he had a small cottage on the Wörthersee. There he composed his fourth through eighth symphonies, the Rückert Lieder based on poems by Friedrich Rückert, the Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), and the last lied of the Lieder aus "Des Knaben Wunderhorn", entitled Der Tambourg'sell.

Related Topics:
1897 - Vienna Opera - Austrian Empire - French - Jules Massenet - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Ludwig van Beethoven - Christoph Willibald Gluck - Wörthersee - Symphonies - Rückert Lieder - Friedrich Rückert - Kindertotenlieder - Lied - Der Tambourg'sell

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Shortly before his appointment to the Opera, Mahler converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism, mainly due to his fears of anti-semitism, which was rampant in the city. Mahler became one of a generation of Jewish intellectuals who had lost their religious identity and taken root in the Austro-German culture they felt they were bound to be a part of. As the composer himself said, "I am thrice homeless: as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world. Everywhere an intruder, never welcomed."

Related Topics:
Judaism - Roman Catholicism - Anti-semitism - German

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In 1902, Mahler married Alma Schindler (1879–1964), with whom he had two daughters, Anna (1904–1988), who later became a sculptor, and Maria Anna, (1902–1907) who died of either scarlet fever or diphtheria at the age of only five.

Related Topics:
1902 - Alma Schindler - 1879 - 1964 - Anna - 1904 - 1988 - 1907 - Scarlet fever - Diphtheria

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Mahler's stubborn obstinance in musical matters created several powerful enemies; he was also coming under increasingly virulent anti-semitic attacks, in 1907 becoming almost unbearable. His own music, which he had attempted to introduce while in Vienna, was also not very well received on the whole; while his fourth symphony was well received by some, it was not until the performance of his eighth in 1910 that he had any true public success with his music. (The pieces he wrote after that were not performed during his lifetime.) The death of his younger daughter left him grief-stricken; that same year he discovered he had heart disease (infective endocarditis). His eventual resignation from the Opera, in part forced by a largely anti-semitic press, was hardly unexpected. That year he received an offer to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He conducted a season there in 1908, only to be set aside in favor of Arturo Toscanini. The next year, he became the conductor of the newly formed New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He hoped to earn enough to be able to retire at the age of fifty to devote his efforts entirely to composing. At this time, he completed his Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth), and his ninth symphony, which would be his last completed work.

Related Topics:
1907 - Fourth symphony - Eighth - 1910 - Infective endocarditis - Metropolitan Opera - New York - 1908 - Arturo Toscanini - New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Das Lied von der Erde - Ninth symphony

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In the middle of a long concert season with the Philharmonic, during his last visit to America in February 1911, he fell seriously ill with a streptococcus infection and was taken to Paris, where a new serum had just recently been developed. However, Mahler's health took a turn for the worse, and was taken back to Vienna at his request. He died there from his infection on May 18, 1911 at the age of 50, leaving his tenth symphony incomplete. He was buried, at his request, beside his daughter, in the Grinzinger Cemetery outside Vienna.

Related Topics:
1911 - Streptococcus - Paris - May 18

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