The Man

Natalie Bauer-Lechner (1858-1921) (published 1923) Mahler, whose outward appearance gives so much cause for criticism, used to reply to reproaches …

Awards

Business card

Business card Kapellmeister Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). Printed visiting card signed and inscribed (‘Mahler’) with a fifteen-line autograph message to a conductor, conceding …

Cartoons and caricatures

Clothing

Year 1900. Gustav Mahler presented this cap to the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (VPO) after the successful guest appearances in Paris in …

Conducting style

Year 1901. Der fliegende Blatter, March 1901, by Hans Schliessmann (1852-1920). Amsterdam During the fourth visit of Gustav Mahler to …

Correspondence sources

1. Correspondence

2. The Mahler Family Letters One day it might become possible to embark upon …

Death mask

Alfred Roller (1864-1935), one of Mahler’s best friends, described Mahler’s appearance: “When, on the morning after the night he died, …

Fan blade

Autograph Musical Quotation on Enormous Wooden Fan Blade. Oversize decorative fan leaf, measuring 2 FEET (60 cm.) in length, inscribed …

Finances

Year 1880:

Glasses

Glasses. Médiathèque Musicale Mahler. Glasses. Case Philipp Emmerich, Munchen, Maximilianstrasse 41. Médiathèque Musicale Mahler

Grave

1.0 Mahler letters and Mahler documents (original donation) 1.1 Letters from Mahler E6-MC-325. Gustav Mahler to Bela Diossy. 26-06-1896. GMB

Hair

Envelope containing a lock of Mahler’s hair folded in blue tissue paper. Envelope inscribed by Justine (Ernestine) Rose-Mahler (1868-1938): “Ein Haarlocken …

Inspiration

“My music is always the voice of nature sounding in tone…” “The Bohemian music of my childhood home has found …

There survives a heart-rending document from this final stage of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)‘s illness. It was probably the last thing …

A group of sketches is found in the Theatermuseum (theatre collection) in Vienna, as part of the estate of the …

1878 (Humpolec/Zeliv)

1880 (Jihlava)

1881-1884/1885 (Ljubljana and Kassel)

Marriage

Wedding card Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Alma Mahler (1879-1964). Wedding card Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Alma Mahler (1879-1964) (detail).

Monogram

Letter monogram Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) by Alfred Roller (1864-1935). However, this monogram is disputed. “AM” (Alma) more likely than “GM” …

Paintings, drawings and silhouettes

Pernerstorfer circle

The Pernerstorfer Circle was a group of late- 19th-century Viennese …

  • Photos of Gustav Mahler can be found in the specific year of the Chronology.

Pianos

Piano of his grandfather Abraham Herrmann (1807-1868). Location: House Abraham Herrmann I (House No. 203). In the loft Gustav found …

“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” “My music is always the voice of nature …

Gustav Mahler’s reading was wide-ranging, extending, as it did, from the classics of world literature to rather more recondite works …

On 23-02-1897 (Year 1897) Gustav Mahler walked into the St. Michael’s church small (Hamburg) and was “received” or baptized into …

Sports

Bicycle owned by the Gustav Mahler Vereinigung Hamburg

Terminology from Mahler Symphonies ab away ( Sordinen ab  = mutes off) abdämpfen dampen down aber but aber deutlich but clearly, …

Occultism was thriving in fin-de-siècle Vienna when Mahler was about forty years old. There was more to turn-of-the-century Vienna than …

Mahler’s vegetarianism is documented in his letters: 1. “The following season proved a very gloomy one for Mahler. Once more …

Wills

Dated 29-06-1891 Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)‘s will, dated Perchtoldsdorf (Vienna), 29-06-1891 (Year 1891) and witnessed by Dr. Emil Freund (1858-1928). Mein letzter Wille! …

Works of Art

Concerto by Giorgione (1478-1510). Engraving. A reproduction hung above Mahlers’ piano. Bruno Walter (1876-1962): “I entered his room and immediately I …

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was a late-Romantic composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born to a Jewish family in the village of Kaliste in Bohemia, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the Czech Republic.

As a composer, Gustav Mahler acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained popularity in Europe (especially Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands) before the Second World War (when performances were banned in those countries). After the war, émigré conductors popularized his works in the US and UK as well, and they gained popularity when recordings became widely available, especially after the anniversary years of 1960/61.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) – Symphony No. 1 (1888)

Gustav Mahler’s oeuvre is relatively small; for much of his life composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Aside from early works such as a movement from a piano quartet, composed when he was a student in Vienna, Gustav Mahler’s works are designed for large orchestral forces, symphonic choruses and vocal soloists.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) – Symphony No. 2 (1894)

His works were often controversial when first performed, and several were slow to receive critical and popular approval. Some of Gustav Mahler’s immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern.