Gustav Mahler: biography, interesting facts, videos, creativity.

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler can be called a composer in essence, but not by profession. He managed to write music only in his spare time. His life was connected with the theater and conducting, but it was not the dictates of the heart, but the desire to make money - he had many younger sisters and a brother in his care, then his own family. And his writings were not understood and were not accepted by anyone except close friends and students.

A brief biography of Gustav Mahler and many interesting facts about the composer can be found on our page.

short biography

On July 7, 1860, Gustav Mahler was born in a small village of Bohemian Czechs. Men over several generations of his family became landowners. Such a fate was prepared for him if it were not for the family’s relocation to the city of Jihlava, where the boy was surrounded by music.

At four, he plays the harmonica melodies heard on the street, and at six he begins to play the piano. In 1870 he held his first concert performance. Incredible insight was shown by Gustav's father, who, seeing that his son did not succeed in any gymnasium disciplines except music, did not insist, but took him to Vienna to study what was the meaning of the life of a 15-year-old boy. Julius Epstein took an active part in the fate of a talented student, who under his leadership began to study at the conservatory.

During the student years it becomes clear - Mahler is not a pianist, he is a composer. Even despite the fact that his first works did not find sympathy among teachers. After graduating from the conservatory, he was forced to earn money as a music teacher, and at the age of 21 he accepted an offer to begin conducting. Ljubljana, Olmütz, Kassel and their orchestras of dubious quality ... Finally, the engagement in Prague, but you have to go to Leipzig ... Throwing through Austria-Hungary ended when in 1888 Mahler was invited to head the Royal Opera of Budapest, into which he literally breathed life. Three years later he became the first conductor of the City Theater in Hamburg, where he became a true idol of the public.

When in 1897 he agreed to a position in the Vienna Opera, then at the last concert in Hamburg, he was bowed at least 60 times. Having come to the court theater as a third conductor, after six months of active work, Mahler becomes its director. He implements his vision of the theater - with its new productions, artistic finds, performing and spectator discipline. Biography of Mahler states that since 1898 he is the chief conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1902, Mahler marries Alma Schindler. She was 19 years younger than him, had compositional ambitions and was known as the muse of many creators — she had close relations with G. Klimt and A. von Zemlinsky. Their acquaintance was short-lived, and the composer decided to make an offer after the fourth date. Married two daughters. The financial situation of Mahler straightened, and he built a villa on Lake Wörth. The creative and revolutionary work in the Vienna Opera continued until 1907, when the composer realized that tension was growing around him both in the theater and in the circles of the high-society public, and he resigned. Following this, a real misfortune came into the family of Mahler - in the same summer, the four-year-old daughter of the maestro died of diphtheria, and then the doctors himself discovered incurable heart disease.

In late 1907, Mahler accepted a very generous offer from the Metropolitan Opera and went to work in New York. However, there, despite the galaxy of famous singers who came out on the stage, there was no staged culture or high-class musicians. Fans of the composer found funds for the reorganization of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, whose head he was elected. But the American public was not particularly interested in symphonic music, and working with a "mediocre and phlegmatic" orchestra did not bring any satisfaction.

After returning to Austria, Maler was forced by doctors to change his lifestyle. In 1910, he learned about the betrayal of his wife, followed by a family scandal, after which the composer even needed the help of a psychoanalyst. Ahead was the triumph of the Eighth Symphony, a busy season in the USA. But the strength is gone. In February 1911, he last conducted the orchestra for the last time, the doctors of two continents stated their impotence, and on May 18 he died in a clinic in Vienna.

Interesting Facts

• According to Mahler’s biography, as a child, Gustav was a closed child who loved to dive into his thoughts. One day his father left him in the forest for several hours, and when he returned - his son was sitting in the same place, without even changing his posture, and pondered.

• Eight-year-old Gustav decided to teach one of his age to play the piano. However, the student turned out to be so inept that the teacher even beat him.
• Mahler had 13 brothers and sisters. Only 5 of them survived to adulthood.
• The composer was half Jewish. Throughout his life in Austria-Hungary, anti-Semitic sentiments prevailed, which did not bypass him. In 1897, in order to match his position in the Vienna Opera, Mahler even baptized himself with the Catholic faith.
• P.I. Tchaikovsky, having arrived in Hamburg for the production of "Eugene Onegin", was so satisfied with Mahler’s work that he did not attempt to interfere in the rehearsal process and take over the leadership of the orchestra.
• Mahler was a fan of Tchaikovsky and opened many of his operas to Germany and Austria. The second Russian creator, whom he admired, was F.M. Dostoevsky.
• Gustav wrote his first compositions at the age of 16 and even sold them to customers - to his parents. Polka for piano cost my mother 2 crowns, about the same amount my father paid for the song “The Turk” on Lessing’s poems. These works have not reached our days.
• Alma Mahler, after the death of her husband, was twice married to architect V. Gropius and writer F. Werfel. From Gropius she gave birth to a daughter, Manon, who died of poliomyelitis at the age of 18, in memory of her Alban Berg wrote the Violin Concerto.

Years of creativity

From the biography of Mahler, we learn that the composer never wanted to work in the theater, but he had to do this for many years, moreover, Gustav regretted that life had developed that way. One of his main failures, he believed that his "Lament"failed at the Beethoven competition in 1871. For Mahler, this defeat meant too much - he was not appreciated as a composer, and he was forced to take care of their daily bread, not about creativity. While the victory and the generous award of the competition would inspire him to new works.

From the early works of the composer we know Concerto in A minor for quartetwhich he wrote at age 16. But the next 10 years, the young musician writes only vocal music - after the "Complaining Song" there were several cycles of songs for voice and piano, including "Songs of an itinerant journeyman"written in 1886 during the romantic period of the maestro’s life. However, the public heard these songs a decade later, much later The first symphonywhich took its start in them. The symphony was born in 1888, although initially it was called only a symphonic poem, which at the Budapest premiere in 1889 did not make a proper impression on the public. Then the score was changed, the symphony appeared entitled parts, the program, the name - "Titan". However, while working on the symphony until 1906, Mahler changed its name and thematic rationale more than once.

The first symphony becomes a prologue to the next four symphonies of the composer. He began to write the second immediately after the end of the first, ending only 6 years later. The Berlin public at the premiere of 1895 was not supportive of the one that hosted his debut, but some critics spoke positively about the novelty, which somewhat raised the morale of the composer.

In parallel, in the late 80's and early 90's, a song cycle was created.Boy's magic horn"in which Mahler musically rethought German folk songs, retaining their original text. The cycle was supplemented at the turn of the century and the second part consisting of 12 songs. Initially there were 15 of them, but the composer used the music of the missing in three of his symphonies. In 1896 The Third Symphony, which talks about the structure of the world, the unity of nature, man and the divine spirit, was completed. Like many works of Mahler, the symphony waited for 6 years for its first performance, the following year, the Fourth Symphony, excellent I'm in character and mood. It was written in the summer months of 1899-1901 years, in a villa in Mayernige when the composer does not bothered theatrical vanity.

In his next symphonies, Mahler does not use soloists and choir. He wrote the fifth symphony in 1901-1902 in search of a new musical language, as if tired of the total lack of understanding of his work. He submitted this work to the public in 1904, but remained dissatisfied with it until the end of his life, infinitely correcting it. One of the parts, "Adagietto," the composer dedicated to his wife. Starting with this symphony, Mahler did not use the program. He did not deny their presence, but did not even tell his closest people about the subject of his writings.

The vocal cycle has become a tragic prediction in the fate of the composer.Songs about dead children"based on verses by F. Ruckert, whose children died of scarlet fever. The cycle was completed in 1904, performed in 1905, two years before the death of his own daughter. In 1903-1904, the Sixth Symphony," Tragic ", was inextricably linked with" The songs about the dead children ", the premiere took place in 1906. In 1905-06, he wrote the Seventh Symphony, which became the personification of the new creative stage.

The eighth, “The Symphony of a Thousand,” with a truly gigantic composition of participants, was written with inspiration, for several months in 1906 - the last happy summer in the composer's life. Mahler said that all previous symphonies were just a prelude to this, and dedicated it to his wife. It is unusual both in form - two-part, and in content - the first part is based on the ancient Christian hymn of the Veni Creator Spiritus, the second part at the Goethe Faust final. The vocal parts are not just returned to this work, but three choirs, including children’s, and eight soloists are involved in it. The number of orchestra increased 5 times! For the execution of such a large-scale work, a long and thorough preparation was required, including the search for choirs and performers. All the soloists and the choir were prepared separately, having gathered together only three days before the premiere, held on September 12, 1910 in Munich. It was the last symphonic premiere in the life of the maestro, but also the first success, accompanied by a half-hour ovation.

Mahler did not dare to call his next work a symphony because of a curse that dominates the number 9. The ninth symphony was the last in Beethoven, and in Schubert, and in Dvorak, and in Bruckner, therefore the work finished in 1909 was called "Song of earth. " This symphony in the songs is written in verses of Chinese poets, in which the composer sought solace after the tragic events of 1907. He did not find the premiere any longer - on November 20, 1911, it was held under the direction of Bruno Walter, a student and friend of the maestro. A year later, Walter performed the last completed work of Mahler - the Ninth Symphony. On the margins of her score, the author noted: "farewell to youth and love." For him, this music was also a farewell to life itself - he understood that the disease was progressing, and after the death of the daughter and the betrayal of his wife, life would never return to normal, and he could not be the same - abrupt, impetuous, emotional - doctors recommended him peace He even began to conduct thoughtfully and sparingly. In 1910, the symphony was finally completed and began to wait in the wings. That summer, Mahler began to write the next, Tenth Symphony, as if to refute the mystical curse. But the work was interrupted, this time - forever. The composer asked to destroy her sketches, but his widow decided otherwise and even suggested A. Schoenberg and DD. Shostakovich to finish the work, from which both masters refused.

Mahler's music at the cinema

Mahler’s disturbing, emotional music more than once became the companion of outstanding films:

About the composer and his family shot several biographical films, including the 1974 film "Mahler", where the title role was played by British actor Robert Powell. The film was shot in the original author's manner, it is intertwined with facts, conjectures and fantasies about the dreams and dreams of the composer. The biography of Alma Mahler laid the foundation for the 2001 film The Bride of the Wind. The role of the maestro played by Jonathan Price, his wife - Sarah Winter.

Oda Maleru served and the film L. Visconti "Death in Venice" in 1971. The director deliberately brought the central character of the picture not to the author of the original source, T. Mann, but to G. Maler, turning him from a writer into a composer, and penetrating the picture with his music.

The 20th century really opened up Gustav Mahler. Since the 1950s, his works have been performed and recorded by the leading orchestras of the world and the most outstanding conductors. His work influenced both the composers of the new Viennese school, D. Shostakovich, and B. Britten.