Musical centenary
May 18, 2011
Festivals and commemorative performances across the European continent have begun paying tribute to one of the most cherished musical figures, Gustav Mahler, 100 years after the Bohemian composer's death on May 18, 1911.
The Vienna State Opera - where Mahler was chief conductor from 1897-1907 - marks the 100th anniversary with a special memorial performance of his final completed symphony, the Ninth, under the baton of Italian maestro Daniele Gatti.
A complete International Mahler Festival has been organized in Leipzig, at the prestigious Gewandhaus concert hall, and a whole month of festivities are planned in Jihlava, the central Czech town where Mahler grew up.
Later on this summer, at the annual Salzburg Festival - one of the world's leading summer music festivals - an entire series of concerts will be dedicated to Mahler, including performances of the early masterpiece "Das klagende Lied" with the Vienna Philharmonic under French conductor Pierre Boulez, one of the champions of Mahler's works.
From conductor to composer
Though Mahler is known today primarily for his composition, the majority of his musical career was spent conducting a range of orchestras throughout Europe and even the United States.
He began his career as Kapellmeister in Upper Austria in 1880 and worked for brief stints in Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Kassel and Leipzig in Germany and then Prague and Budapest, before moving to Hamburg in 1891.
He was finally appointed director of the Vienna State Opera in 1897 - a position for which he temporarily renounced his Jewish faith and converted to Christianity - where he remained until 1907.
In 1908, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he also conducted the New York Philharmonic for the first time a year later.
From infamy to fame
Mahler's own oeuvre - which he composed in his free time during vacations to Wörthersee, an Alpine lake in southern Austria - comprises nine completed symphonies, an unfinished Tenth, and various orchestral songs and song-cycles.
His music was often derided as cacophonous in his own lifetime and essentially neglected for decades after his death. After being completely banned by the Nazi regime, his works were rediscovered by conductors such as Leonard Bernstein in the second half of the 20th century.
Mahler's influence on modern classical music - even before being rediscovered for popular audiences - was and has been extensive. The long list of composers that display this influence includes the Austrian Arnold Schönberg, England's Benjamin Britten and Russia's Dmitri Shostakovich.
Author: Gabriel Borrud (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Nancy Isenson