Very few musicians have been passed which in Gustav Mahler: the success and knowledge of his works came almost a century after his death. It's true: Mahler, born in 1860 and died in 1911, always knew that "his time was yet to come" (he himself said) for many years was a composer barely played, and his work had to wait until the centenary of his birth for this trend began to change.
Today his works are interpreted in both programming and recordings as assiduously as those of Beethoven or Brahms .... Now is unanimously considered one of the greatest musical artists of the twentieth century : complexity their music, the richness of expression, the audacity of his musical language, the fatalism, the joy unleashed, sometimes agonizing anxiety, have inclined many to think that Gustav used his art as "a shoulder to cry" and as a kind of canvas on which embodied his deepest moods.
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son of parents whose marriage of convenience was miserable the whole family, Gustav was the second of a total of 14 children, of which only four would reach adulthood. He lived with the death of her brothers since she was very small and that undoubtedly marked the rest of his life, and of course, also the work. The references to death and childhood are recurrent in many of his compositions.
From its beginnings as a music student said as a pianist and then felt the need to compose, their experience in a theater of people as props assistant, cleaner, stage and musical director came up to this world and decided to become a conductor, for which he knew he had an infinite capacity. The course of his life alternated between those two facets: to critically acclaimed orchestral director and composer more misunderstood.
As soon became a famous conductor requested by theaters around the world, the audience of the time failed to understand or how to respond in their own compositions, musical language as a novel, nor a new concept of the structure of his works, or ironic winks, or the environment at times "rarefied harmony" of his music: the criticism was devastating and the reception of his works, always cold.
Of course, these circumstances discouraged the composer, although loyal admirer of Beethoven's personality and always had the Master as an example of sacrifice and self-improvement, which always encouraged him to keep trying.
Mahler had a constant character, meticulous, almost obsessive, able to rise above difficulties and specialist "escape forward", but also its dark side: sometimes too lonely, angry and depressed, could now catalogársele as "bipolar" for its constant changes of mood. These ups and downs together with his whole life he had poor health, sometimes made him a person cranky, difficult and intractable.
already being an established director in Vienna, at age 41 knew that was the great love of his life, Alma Schindler, 20. On this relationship have run many stories, starting with the same newspaper that Alma was since I knew.
Both had many stories behind her Mahler was known for his sonic love affair with all kinds of opera singers, musicians, friends, wives Alma was very co ... beautiful and she knew, and admired as he heard of conductor decided to meet at all costs.
He fell in love immediately and after three months of engagement, married in 1902, were very happy the first years of their marriage and had two daughter, Mary and Anna.
But it seems that sometimes one event follows another and another ... at age six, the eldest daughter, Mary, died of scarlet fever, a fact that the whole family plunged into a crisis that was compounded when, shortly time, Mahler himself was diagnosed with a severe heart condition which changed him forever.
His life took a radical turn, used to working tirelessly for duty and devotion, his doctors recommended drastically lower their activity level. The family had a house in an idyllic location in the south of Austria, surrounded by mountains and lakes where they spent summers and where Mahler, a great lover of mountain climbing, diving and climbing, relaxing, inspiring, isolated and could compose in peace. For
also had to forget their country walks and climbs, both had given their music.
In the summer of 1908 was established a crisis in marriage coming brewing for some time: Mahler increasingly sicker and more depressed, with constant throat infections and hemorrhoids that eventually end up complicating, and Alma, depressed, sad and discouraged.
The big difference of age, be tied to an old, sick and the sad situation of the family, eventually leading her to meet another man, Walter Gropius, with whom he maintained a relationship Alma which he never wanted to speak clearly, as occurred when Mahler was most needed.
When Mahler knew he was dying he told Alma he wanted a simple grave in which only put his name, nothing more.
"Those who come to see me, know I'm there. The others do not have to know."
is buried in Vienna, the city that witnessed his greatest hits.
Mahler wrote chamber music, choral works, song cycles and symphonies ... for many it is in the symphonies which peaked greatness as a composer, expanding and innovating in all senses and turning in the reflection of human experiences, both joyful and tragic as trivial and profound.
The Adagietto for harp and strings of 5 ª Symphony is the fourth movement of the five members of this work, composed between 1901 and 1902, and in a very special personal circumstances (Mahler Alma had just met, and inspiration is very obvious), for some, particularly the symphony and that you listen Adagietto was like a "wedding gift" from Gustav to Alma, as a matter of musically portraying his wife.
According to some music critics as Soper, "this tune clamp times at the border of kitsch, is one of the most conspicuous imagined love songs by the musician. "
As one of the best-known of the composer, it seemed a good idea to begin with.
There is so much and so great to hear from Mahler ...
Surely some perceive it because he was part of the soundtrack of Luchino Visconti's film Death in Venice ".
This is version of director Rafael Kubelik, leading the Orchestra des Bayerischen Rundfunks, which he recorded the complete symphonies of the 10 Mahlerian in 1971.
To me it is one of the versions that I like, although there are many very good: Leonard Bernstein I also love.
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