We’ve been busy rehearsing Mahler ‘The Resurrection’ for our performance at the NCH on 5th March as part of the RIAM Annual Orchestral Gala Concert. Learning this piece has prompted me to do some further research into the life of Mahler to discover more about the person as well as the composer. Here’s what I discovered on Wikipedia:

“The Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances; the composer’s grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire; the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, and was also Jewish. From this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, “always an intruder, never welcomed”.”

His school reports suggested that he was a day dreamer and did not pay attention in class. He preferred to express himself through music.

A recurring theme in anything written on Mahler is that many of his professional appointments ended acrimoniously. He is presented as someone with enormous passion for perfection in his music, a true innovator, a non-conformist, rebellious and strong willed.

He was said to be rather dictatorial as a Choral Master and Conductor which made him unpopular. Even as a student, he narrowly avoided expulsion from The Vienna Conservatory for failure to conform to their strict disciplinary codes. Mahler destroyed much of his early work himself out of dissatisfaction or after criticism  - he must have been rather impulsive too.

Here’s an example of this on Wikipedia

“In May 1888, Mahler’s new-found financial security enabled him to resign his Leipzig position after a dispute with the Stadttheater’s chief stage manager. Without a post, Mahler returned to Prague to work on a revival of Die drei Pintos and a production of Peter Cornelius’s Der Barbier von Bagdad. This short stay ended unhappily, with Mahler’s dismissal after an outburst during rehearsals. “

Originally Jewish, he converted to Catholicism in order to secure the post of Director of the Vienna Court Opera. During his time in Vienna, Mahler experienced regular opposition from anti-semitic press. He became known as one of the great conductors – in particular for his interpretation of Wagner and Mozart works. His professional career ended at The New York Philarmonic where he became sick at the end of 1910.

Mahler died of complications arising from Bacterial Endocarditis at The  Lŏw sanatorium in Vienna on 18th May 1911. His work lives on.

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler