Gustav Mahler
The village of Kaliště in eastern Bohemia was home to a family with humble origins. Bernhard Mahler, the composer's father, had been a street pedlar before he became an innkeeper and coachman. He bought a modest house there and married Marie Herrmann in 1857. Their second son Gustav arrived two years later on the 18th of July 1860. The family moved to Jihlava in December 1860 where they built a successful distillery and tavern business. Twelve children were born to the couple but only six survived infancy. Young Gustav discovered his grandparents' piano at age four and took to it immediately. He gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. School reports from the Jihlava portrayed him as absent-minded and unreliable in academic work. His younger brother Ernst died after a long illness on the 13th of April 1875. Mahler sought to express these feelings through music by beginning work on an opera called Duke Ernest of Swabia as a memorial to his lost brother.
Mahler began his professional conducting career in June 1880 at a small wooden theatre in the spa town of Bad Hall south of Linz. The repertory there was exclusively operetta which Carr described as a dismal little job. By September 1881 he worked at the Landestheater in Laibach now known as Ljubljana in Slovenia. Here he conducted his first full-scale opera Verdi's Il trovatore. From January 1883 he became conductor at the Royal Municipal Theatre in Olmütz now Olomouc in Moravia. He later wrote that crossing the threshold of the Olmütz theatre made him feel like one awaiting the wrath of God. Despite poor relations with the orchestra he brought nine operas to the stage including Bizet's Carmen. In August 1883 he took a post at the Royal Theatre in Kassel where he served as Musical and Choral Director. On the 23rd of June 1884 he conducted his own incidental music to Joseph Victor von Scheffel's play The Trumpeter of Säckingen for its first professional public performance. A six-year contract with the prestigious Leipzig Opera began in August 1886. Mahler resigned from this position on the 17th of May 1888 after a dispute with the chief stage manager Albert Goldberg.
Deryck Cooke divided Mahler's composing life into three distinct phases extending from 1880 to 1911. The long first period ran until 1901 and included the first four symphonies plus the song cycle Songs of a Wayfarer. During these years songs and symphonies were closely related and the works were programmatic. Mahler initially gave the first three symphonies full descriptive programmes all of which he later repudiated. The middle period ended with his departure for New York in 1907 and comprised a triptych of purely instrumental symphonies the Fifth Sixth and Seventh. In this phase Mahler abandoned all explicit programmes and wanted to write absolute music that spoke for itself. He also composed Rückert songs and Das Lied von der Erde during this time. The brief final period covered elegiac works created before his death in 1911 including the Ninth Symphony and an incomplete Tenth Symphony. Each piece in this final group ends quietly signifying that aspiration had given way to resignation. None of these final works were performed in Mahler's lifetime.
In July 1907 both daughters fell ill with scarlet fever and diphtheria while the family was at Maiernigg. Anna recovered but Maria died on the 12th of July after a fortnight's struggle. Immediately following this loss Mahler learned that his heart was defective. A Vienna specialist confirmed the diagnosis and ordered curtailment of vigorous exercise. Alma wrote of it as a virtual death sentence though Mahler said he would be able to live a normal life apart from avoiding over-fatigue. On the 21st of February 1911 with a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius he insisted on fulfilling an engagement at Carnegie Hall. This was his last concert. After weeks confined to bed he was diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis which could be fatal. He developed pneumonia and slipped into a coma at the Löw sanatorium in Vienna. He died on the 18th of May 1911 aged 50. Hundreds had come to the sanatorium during this brief period to show their admiration for the great composer. He was buried in Grinzing cemetery next to his daughter Maria.
Mahler's works attracted wide interest during his lifetime but rarely unqualified approval. Critics and public struggled to understand the First Symphony described by one critic after an 1898 Dresden performance as the dullest symphonic work the new epoch has produced. His many enemies used the anti-Semitic and conservative press to denigrate almost every performance of a Mahler work. A Viennese critic Heinrich Reinhardt dismissed the Sixth Symphony as Brass lots of brass incredibly much brass! Even more brass nothing but brass! The one unalloyed performance triumph within Mahler's lifetime was the premiere of the Eighth Symphony in Munich on the 12th of September 1910. At its conclusion applause and celebrations reportedly lasted for half an hour. This occasion was easily Mahler's biggest lifetime success according to Carr. It was advertised by its promoters as the Symphony of a Thousand. Despite this triumph it was overshadowed by the composer's discovery before the event that Alma had begun an affair with the young architect Walter Gropius.
Performances of Mahler's works became less frequent after his death. In the Netherlands the advocacy of Willem Mengelberg ensured that Mahler remained popular there. Much American critical reaction in the 1920s was negative despite efforts by Aaron Copland to present Mahler as progressive. Before Mahler's music was banned as degenerate during the Nazi era the symphonies were played in concert halls often conducted by Bruno Walter or Otto Klemperer. Works performed included the Second Symphony in Berlin and the First and Fourth Symphonies in Amsterdam. After 1945 his compositions were rediscovered by a new generation of listeners. Leonard Bernstein used to imply he had single-handedly rescued Mahler from oblivion in 1960 after 50 years of neglect. The International Gustav Mahler Society was established in 1955 to honour the composer's life and achievements. Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
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Common questions
When and where was Gustav Mahler born?
Gustav Mahler was born on the 18th of July 1860 in the village of Kaliště in eastern Bohemia. His parents were Bernhard Mahler and Marie Herrmann.
What happened to Gustav Mahler's brother Ernst?
Ernst died after a long illness on the 13th of April 1875. This loss inspired Mahler to begin work on an opera called Duke Ernest of Swabia as a memorial.
How did Deryck Cooke divide Gustav Mahler's composing life into phases?
Deryck Cooke divided Mahler's composing life from 1880 to 1911 into three distinct phases. The first phase ran until 1901, the middle period ended with his departure for New York in 1907, and the final brief period covered works created before his death in 1911.
Why did Gustav Mahler die on the 18th of May 1911?
Mahler died at age 50 after being diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis which led to pneumonia and a coma. He had been confined to bed at the Löw sanatorium in Vienna following a high fever of 40 degrees Celsius.
Which performance was the only unalloyed triumph during Gustav Mahler's lifetime?
The premiere of the Eighth Symphony in Munich on the 12th of September 1910 was the single unalloyed performance triumph within Mahler's lifetime. Applause and celebrations reportedly lasted for half an hour at this event advertised as the Symphony of a Thousand.