Mahler, Gustav

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was born in Kalischt in Bohemia. He was the son of a poor Jewish peddler and in later years he referred to himself as a thrice homeless man: a Bohemian among Austrians, an Austrian among Germans and a Jew among the people of the whole world.

He began to study piano at the age of six and was already an accomplished pianist when he entered the Vienna Conservatoire at the age of 15. Much of his career was spent as an opera conductor working in Budapest, Hamburg and finally in Vienna, where his energy and competence as artistic director soon made the Vienna Court Opera the finest company in Europe.

Mahler resigned from this post in 1907 when he was unable to sustain the workload any longer, due to heart problems and grief at the death of his eldest daughter. He spent the last years of his life conducting in Europe and the United States.

Mahler’s compositions received little acclaim during his lifetime, and it was not until the 1950s that his work became popular. His fin-de-siècle late Romantic compositional style fluctuates between irony and melancholy.

Mahler completed nine symphonies, leaving a tenth unfinished, in addition to Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth), a symphony in all but name, based on old Chinese poems.

Symphony No. 1 is sometimes known as the "Titan" and includes a remarkable, ironic funeral march that transforms a nursery tune. Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 8 make use of choruses and vocal soloists. Symphony No. 8 is known as the "Symphony of a Thousand" because of the monumental forces it requires. The symphonies, in their variety of mood, offer a reflection of the world, with music that may occasionally be garish and yet often reaches unsurpassable heights.

Mahler wrote a number of songs of singular beauty, some of which were re-used in orchestral settings. These songs include settings of poems from the Romantic anthology Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn), Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) and Rueckert's Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children).