Mahler: A Life - Softcover

Carr, Jonathan

3.93

102 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590205146 ISBN 13: 9781590205143

Publisher: Overlook Press, 2011

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Although Gustav Mahler has become one of most popular of composers, he remains widely misunderstood both as man and musician. In Mahler, Jonathan Carr analyzes and debunks many of the myths surrounding the composer, offering a complete re-examination of his life and work. Setting the stage with a look into Mahler's early career as an ambitious (and often ruthless) conductor, Carr focuses his eye on the composer's last decade -- his tempestuous marriage to the complicated but alluring Alma Schindler, his work as a "summer composer" in isolated huts in the country, his revolutionary achievements as director of the Vienna opera, his final years in America, and the circumstances around his death in 1911.

In her memoirs Alma drew Mahler as a sickly, cerebral recluse. Arnold Schoenberg called him a "saint." Leonard Bernstein, largely responsible for the Mahler "boom" in the Sixties, found a "secret shame" at the heart of Mahler's music, "the shame of being a Jew and the shame of being ashamed." But he was also skilled at behind-the-scenes politicking in Vienna and a devotee of Oriental mysticism, both of which are crucial for a full understanding of Mahler. Using letters, diaries, and other material hitherto unavailable in English, Carr brilliantly challenges some of the most widely held assumptions about Mahler.

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hard to find

From the Author:

Kirkus circus
While crawling (hardly surfing!) round the Web, I have unhappily alighted on the piece about my Mahler biography from Kirkus Reviews of 11/15/97. Well well. As Sir Thomas Beecham used to say ``You critic chaps have a remarkable talent for saying just the opposite of the true facts.'' If love of most of Mahler's music and fascination with his often dramatic life is a crime, I stand condemned on the accumulated evidence of more than three decades. But of course Mahler had faults and naturally I write about them - his moodiness, blatant careerism, at times downright viciousness as conductor to his orchestral players etc. As it happens, for many years I was biased in Alma's favour. It was only when I began to study the evidence more closely that I was forced to change my view. ``While Alma's apparent misconceptions are probably worthy of correction...''write the Kirkus people. No. It is not worth wasting one's life correcting apparent misconceptions - only real ones. Have I written a balanced account of Mahler's life and work or have I not? Let's be democratic about this and let the readers decide. Let Amazon monitor readers' reactions over a period of several months which it can determine. If the majority goes against me I will pay 1,000 dollars to a suitably worthy cause - let me suggest the fine but hardly overfunded Colorado MahlerFest. If Kirkus is outvoted, it must do the same. I will only pay if Kirkust accepts its part of the bargain. If it does not, we can all imagine why. Good reading to all Mahler fans - and foes. Jonathan Carr

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