Gustav Mahler, vol. 3. Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907)

Gustav Mahler was one of the supremely gifted musicians of his generation. His contemporaries came to know him as a composer of startling originality whose greatest successes with the public never failed to provoke controversy among the critics. As a conductor, his relentless pursuit of perfection was sometimes viewed as tyrannical by the singers and musicians who came under his baton. Professor Henry-Louis de La Grange has devoted over thirty years of painstaking research to this study of Mahlers life and works. His biography, ultimately to be completed in four volumes, is drawn from a vast archive of documents, autographs, and pictures, assembled by La Grange at the Bibliothèque Musicale Gustav Mahler, Paris.

This third volume covers the years 1904-1907 and shows Mahler in his final years at the Hofoper coping with the rival demands on his energy and creative powers of the Opera on the one hand and his continuing struggle for recognition as a composer in his own right on the other. The first signs of marital difficulties with Alma emerge. Mahlers trials culminate in 1907 with the death of Putzi, his eldest daughter, a terminal crisis at the Opera which makes him decide to leave Vienna, and the alarming diagnosis by the doctors of a cardiac deficiency. True to life portraits are drawn of Mahler the human being, the family man, and the composer, as well as the administrator, producer, and conductor at the Vienna Opera. Innumerable testimonies and anecdotes throw new light on the many aspects of Mahler's complex personality.

CONTENIDO:

List of illustrations
Abbreviations

1. "Fidelio"; First performance of the Fifth Symphony; Second Journey to Holland; Mahler as Diplomat; The Third Symphony in Leipzig and Vienna (August-December 1904)

2. Mahler in Vienna (XVIII): "Das Rheingold"; Mahler and Viennese Society; Première of the "Kindertotenleider"; Meeting with Webern. End of the Vereinigung: The Fifth in Dresden, Berlin, Prague, and Hamburg (January-March 1905)

3. Mahler in Vienna (XIX); Pfitzner in Vienna; "Die Rose vom Liebesgarten"; The Strasbourg Festival (March-May 1905)

4. Mahler in Vienna (XX); The Graz Festival; Correspondence with Cosima Wagner Completion of the Seventh Symphony; The Battle for "Salome"; The Second Symphony in Berlin: Oskar Fried; The Fifth Symphony in Trieste, Vienna, and Breslau; Preparation of the Mozart Year (June-December 1905)

5. Mahler in Vienna (XXI); The Mozart Year; "Così fan tutte" and "Don Giovanni"; "Die Entführung" and "Figaro"; "The Magic Flute"; Antwerp and Amsterdam Concerts; Mahler as Administrator, Stage Director, and Conductor (December 1905-April 1906)

6. Mahler in Vienna (XXII); "Salome" in Graz; Première of the Sixth; Composition of the Eighth; Salzburg Festival; Mahler in his Maturity (May-August 1906)

7. Mahler in Vienna (XXIII); Caruso in Vienna; "Le Juif polonais"; "The Barber of Seville"; "The Taming of the Shrew"; The Sixth in Berlin, Munich, and Vienna; The Third in Breslau and Graz (September 1906-January 1907)

8. Mahler in Vienna (XXIV); The Third in Berlin; Encounters with Strauss; The Fourth in Frankfurt; The First in Linz The press campaign against Mahler; "Die Walküre" and "Iphigenie en Aulide"; Messchauert's recitals; Schoenberg premières (January-March 1907)

9. Mahler in Vienna (XXV); Grete Wiesenthal and "La Muette de Portici"; Roller and the ballet; Journey to Rome; Final opera productions; Mahler's departure from the Opera; Putzi's death; Diagnosis of heart ailment (March-August 1907)

10. Mahler in Vienna (XXVI); Weingartner is appointed; The Vienna Opera after Mahler; Opening of the new season; Journeys to Russia and Finland; Farewell to Vienna (August-December 1907)

Appendix 1. Catalogue of Mahler's Works
Appendix 2. Detailed history and analysis of works composed between 1904 and 1907
Appendix 3. The Vienna Opera in Mahlers Time
Appendix 4. Two letters of Siegried Lipiner addressed to Mahler
Appendix 5. Analysis of Alma Mahler's handwriting

Select Bibliography
Index