Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was an Austrian composer, opera and symphonic conductor. He was born in the Bohemian village of Kaliste into a poor Jewish family. His musical ability emerged early: he began piano lessons at six, gave a public performance in Jihlava at ten, and made his first attempts at composition as a child.
In 1875 Mahler entered the Vienna Conservatory, where Julius Epstein taught him piano, Robert Fuchs taught him harmony, and Franz Krenn taught him composition. He also attended lectures by Anton Bruckner, whom he later regarded as one of his principal teachers. After graduating in 1878, Mahler studied history and philosophy at the University of Vienna and earned money by teaching piano. His early compositions included the cantata Song of the Lament and a piano quartet.
Mahler began his conducting career in 1880, taking temporary posts at provincial theaters before working in Kassel, Prague, and Leipzig. In Leipzig, he completed Carl Maria von Weber’s unfinished opera The Three Pintos, which premiered in 1888. He also composed his First Symphony and the song cycle Songs of a Wayfarer. As director of the Budapest Opera from 1888 to 1891, he built a capable ensemble and established performances in Hungarian. He then became principal conductor at the Hamburg City Theater, where he also led symphonic concerts.
In 1897 Mahler joined the Vienna Court Opera and soon became its director. He developed a demanding approach to opera that placed the staging, music, and performers under a unified artistic conception. Working with designer Alfred Roller, he created productions that became influential in the history of Austrian theater. Mahler conducted a wide repertoire, from Gluck and Mozart to Wagner, and also worked regularly with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mahler married Alma Schindler in 1902, and they had two daughters. His demanding work at the Vienna Court Opera left him little time to compose, so he generally wrote during the summer. Works from this period include his Third through Eighth Symphonies, the Songs on the Death of Children, and songs on poems by Friedrich Rückert. In 1907 he left the opera and moved to the United States, where he conducted at the Metropolitan Opera and led the New York Philharmonic. His later works included The Song of the Earth and the Ninth Symphony; the Tenth Symphony remained unfinished.
Mahler returned to Vienna after becoming seriously ill and died there in 1911. His completed final works, The Song of the Earth and the Ninth Symphony, were premiered after his death under Bruno Walter. Mahler’s symphonies and song cycles combine orchestral writing with vocal music and draw on a broad range of styles, including folk song, dance, and march. His conducting and musical interpretations influenced colleagues and later conductors, while his compositions—initially known to a relatively small circle of supporters—gained wide recognition in the decades after his death.