Gustav Mahler : Vienna : The Years of Challenge (1897-1904)

From Publishers Weekly
De la Grange is the world's most eminent Mahler scholar and the present volume, the second installment of a four-volume biography, is the most expansive treatment we are likely to see of the career of the composer-conductor who has really only entered the musical mainstream in the past 25 years. With painstaking detail and a truly incredible depth of scholarship, de la Grange takes the reader through Mahler's first tempestuous years as director of the Vienna Opera-an exacting role in which he not only conducted but hired the singers (a double cast, in case of trouble), supervised the productions, oversaw the scenery and directed-and also quickly took on the double role as the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, then Europe's premier orchestra. His all-too-rare vacations, which he guarded desperately, were saved for writing the compositions for which he is now chiefly known-as covered in this volume, some of the greatest orchestral lieder, his Fourth, Fifth and Sixth symphonies, and early performances of his First, Second and Third. Contemporary critics were largely unkind, audiences (except in anti-Semitic Vienna) largely ecstatic. In this volume, Mahler also meets and marries Alma-which de la Grange's wealth of contemporary documentation and letters shows was an ill-starred union, though it provided much solace to both from time to time. No praise can be too high for the care that has gone into de la Grange's work, and obsessive Mahlerians (are there any other kind?) will find a wealth of absorbing material. Illustrations (not seen by PW) plus extensive musical analyses. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
In an age of artistic accomplishment, Gustav Mahler stood out as one of the supremely gifted musicians of his generation. As a composer, he won acclaim for his startling originality. As a conductor, his relentless pursuit of perfection was sometimes seen as tyrannical by the singers and musicians who came under his baton. And always, even with his greatest triumphs, he provoked controversy among the critics. Now Henry-Louis de La Grange, Mahler's celebrated biographer, offers new insight into Mahler's life and work with his latest look at the career of this musical genius. In Mahler in Vienna, La Grange follows the great musician to the intellectual and artistic capital of turn-of-the-century Europe. From Mahler's spectacular debut as director of the Vienna Court Opera to his triumphant tour of the continent, we see him at the height of his powers. La Grange vividly portrays the marvelous spectacle, including the extraordinary range of artists who worked with Mahler--the composers Dvorak, Gustave Charpentier, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, and Schoenberg; the painters, architects, and decorators of the Secession (led by Klimt); and the writers Hauptmann, Dehmel, Hofmannsthal, and Schnitzler. In Vienna, the conductor worked a revolution in standards of performance and (along with Secession painter Alfred Roller) scenic illustration. It was also during this period that he wrote some of his best-loved symphonies--including his Fourth and Fifth--and his three orchestral song-cycles and collections, the Wunderhorn-, Ruckert-, and Kindertotenlieder. For each of these works La Grange provides full notes and analytic descriptions. And the author does not neglect Mahler's temptestuous personal life, for during these years he met Alma Schindler--"the most beautiful woman in Vienna." La Grange deftly captures the story of their engagement and marriage in 1902. Mahler remains one of the greatest figures in the history f music, a man whose work provokes strong reactions today as in his own time. This account is just one part of the definitive four-volume biography Gustav Mahler, the result of a thirty-year research project; the author has personally translated it from his original French into English. Scrupulously researched and insightfully written, this volume is a brilliant account of a critical epoch in Mahler's life.


Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French


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De la Grange is the world's most eminent Mahler scholar and the present volume, the second installment of a four-volume biography, is the most expansive treatment we are likely to see of the career of the composer-conductor who has really only entered the musical mainstream in the past 25 years. With painstaking detail and a truly incredible depth of scholarship, de la Grange takes the reader through Mahler's first tempestuous years as director of the Vienna Opera-an exacting role in which he not only conducted but hired the singers (a double cast, in case of trouble), supervised the productions, oversaw the scenery and directed-and also quickly took on the double role as the conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, then Europe's premier orchestra. His all-too-rare vacations, which he guarded desperately, were saved for writing the compositions for which he is now chiefly known-as covered in this volume, some of the greatest orchestral lieder, his Fourth, Fifth and Sixth symphonies, and early performances of his First, Second and Third. Contemporary critics were largely unkind, audiences (except in anti-Semitic Vienna) largely ecstatic. In this volume, Mahler also meets and marries Alma-which de la Grange's wealth of contemporary documentation and letters shows was an ill-starred union, though it provided much solace to both from time to time. No praise can be too high for the care that has gone into de la Grange's work, and obsessive Mahlerians (are there any other kind?) will find a wealth of absorbing material. Illustrations (not seen by PW) plus extensive musical analyses. (Jan.)


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