Why Mahler?: How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed the World

by Norman Lebrecht

A century after his death, Gustav Mahler is the most important composer of modern times. Displacing Beethoven as a box-office draw, heard in Hollywood films and on state occasions, his music inspires particular devotion. Some believe it helps heal emotional wounds, others find intellectual fascination in its contradictory meanings, and many feel that the music captures the yearnings and anxieties of our post-industrial society. In this highly original account of the composer's life and work, Norman Lebrecht explores the Mahler Effect, asking why Mahler's music has become the soundtrack to our twenty-first-century lives.

Genres: Music, Biography, History, Nonfiction, Classical Music, Art, 20th Century

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Norman Lebrecht (born 11 July 1948 in London) is a British commentator on music and cultural affairs and a novelist. He was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph from 1994 until 2002 and assistant editor of the Evening Standard from 2002 until 2009. On BBC Radio 3, he has presented lebrecht.live from 2000 and The Lebrecht Interview from 2006.

He has written twelve books about music, which have been translated into 17 languages. Coming up in 2010 is Why Mahler?, a new interpretation of the most influential composer of modern times. See Books for more details. Also coming back in print is Mahler Remembered (Faber, 1987).

Norman Lebrecht's first novel The Song of Names won a Whitbread Award in 2003. His second, The Game of Opposites, was published in the US by Pantheon Books. A third is in preparation.

A collection of Lebrecht columns will be published this year in China, the first such anthology by any western cultural writer. A Lebrecht conversation appears monthly in The Strad, magazine of the strings professions.

The Lebrecht Interview will return in July 2010 on BBC Radio 3 and there will be further editions of The Record Doctor in New York on WNYC.

A year-long series of events, titled Why Mahler?, will open on London's South Bank in September 2010, curated by Norman Lebrecht.

Other works in progress include a stage play and various radio and television documentaries.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed this book: it gives some insight into Mahler the man as well as into the symphonies in particular. But it's all very much the author's viewpoint, his bias.
We have a radio programme here in New Zealand in which the compiler presents a bunch of alternative type music each week. He hypes up each track to such a degree that you think, 'This must be superb'. Almost invariably it's tosh, with occasional interesting things done at a less than top level.
Lebrecht is a bit like this, though in his case, he's talking about Mahler, so the music itself is actually superb. But he hypes things up enormously while continually saying that Mahler speaks to every person individually.
This is even more apparent in the later section of the book where he 'reviews' almost everything of Mahler's that's ever been recorded. Many conductors' interpretations are dismissed with a single word - often apt, it's true, but dismissed all the same. Certain conductors, such as Klemperer and Boulez almost never get any kudos; other less-well-known conductors are treated as top-notch interpreters. Which in the end may all be a matter of taste. Anyway, who has the time to wend their way through dozens of versions of a particular symphony (symphonies in Mahler's case which are frequently hitting the hour-long mark) in order to gauge which interpretation suits them best?
As another reviewer notes, Alma Mahler comes off very badly in this book. Lebrecht presents as a self-serving, lascivious, unfaithful and often uncaring woman. Even as Mahler is dying she's already arranging to meet up with her current lover. If she was anything like Lebrecht presents, she comes across as very negative. Perhaps this is more his interpretation of the 'symphony' that was Alma, than a true interpretation. But of course, who is actually going to be able to get to that now? Admittedly her diaries seem to give her away frequently, and yet Mahler appears to have really loved her. Most of the time. (Isn't that often the way with marriages?)
In some ways this is quite an odd book. Nevertheless, I found it worth reading: it brought me back to listening to Mahler again (there are some great performances available on You Tube, and since Mahler is seldom heard live here in NZ - or at least in my part of the country - it's great to be able to see the huge orchestras and choirs at work). And it also gave me some insight into Mahler the man, and to the time in which he lived, a time in which Jews were already being regarded as less than human by their fellow-countrymen, something that would eventually boil up into the horrors of Naziism. Anti-Semitism has been with a lot longer than the reign of Hitler.
Lebrecht has obviously given much of his life to finding out more and more about Mahler, and that's a great advantage to us as readers.

[Aeron · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's funny. At one point towards the end of this book, Lebrecht criticizes previous biographies of Mahler for being too pro-Alma (Mahler's wife). This book errs in the opposite direction. It's clear that the author can't stand Alma, and perhaps it was justified, but just based on this narrative, I'm not convinced. For example, he describes how men were attracted to her using words like, "they could sense her sexual availability." What? So the fact that men find her attractive is her fault? She married an older man who for long stretches of their marriage was impotent. I don't think she was evil for eventually taking lover. She didn't do it until towards the end of Mahler's life, and she basically got the man's permission to do so. The author also criticizes her for recording details about their sexual life in her diary, but then he is the one who publishes those details in his book. Can you say hypocrite?

Anyway, I don't want to harp on that, but whenever he started in on Alma, I found myself wanting to defend her without ever having known much about her prior to reading this book. I always try to start a review with the good stuff, but it's hard to do with this book. I'll stretch and say that this book was good in that when Lebrecht wrote about Mahler's symphonies, he brought them to life for me. But as a biography this book is a failure.

Lebrecht inserted himself just enough to take me out of the story of Mahler's life ("When I went and sat in the cabin where he composed...", "I made quick friends with this famous reclusive composer," blah blah blah). I think the best biographies do give you a good sense of the author, and some provide parallel narratives of the biographer. This style can work. But when Lebrecht inserts himself, it's only to show how well connected, well versed in Mahler's life he is, without really opening up his own life as a narrative. I get the strong feeling I would not like this man, which made reading this book almost unbearable. It was like being stuck at an interminable dinner party with a man who talks constantly but never listens. I have no doubt the man knows everything about Mahler, but the biographer comes off as such a pompous ass that I'm not always interested in gaining from his copious, heavily opinionated knowledge.

[Philippe · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the few books in my library I am tempted to throw in the bin. It's a totally superfluous addition to an already vast Mahler bibliography. Lebrecht's account is mawkish, tasteless, unscholarly and self-aggrandizing. Take this passage, in which the author unfolds a theory of why the final chords in Mahler's Song of the Earth ("ewig") make such an impact:

"How does Mahler pack so much emotion into so trite a word? The 'Ewig' enigma resisted me for years until a chance sighting at a 1988 exhibition in Vienna cracked a subconscious code. It was the fiftieth anniversary of Hitler's Anschluss and, among the artefacts, was a photograph of a railway station festooned with a banner: 'Der ewige Jude', the eternal Jew. Of course, 'Ewig', pronounced as eh-vish, has a specific connotation in the German mind. It is the Eternal Jew, the one who killed Christ and is condemnded to wander the beloved earth, a touchstone of Christian theology. In 1940 Joseph Goebbels makes it in the title of a film whose purpose it is to justify genocide. 'Ewig' and Jew are linked in the German mind. 'Ewig' in The Song of the Earth is the old Jew in Gustav Mahler, the alter ego, the primal Mahler that he manages to rediscover as his life enters its closing phase. it is the sound of catharsis, for Mahler and for all who listen to The Song of the Earth.

Its healing power cannot be overstated. One summer, most of it spent over a sick child, I flew to Edinburgh for the festival, only to be told on arrival there was a problem at home. 'Wait half an hour,' said my wife, when I offered to fly back. By the time she called again the crisis was over. I stayed on, in a wretched state. There was a sold-out concert that night of The Song of the Earth, just what I needed. Talking myself into a manager's seat, I sat through an uneven performance, missed top notes from the tenor and an Usher Hall too hot for the strings to stay in tune, but when the 'Ewig's came around the effect was irresistible. Life, I knew, would go on. My child would overcome her condition. Mahler had tapped determinedly into our human resilience, our infinite capacity for self-renewal."

Now that I have transcribed this passage in full I am quite sure this book will end up in the trash.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly readable, witty, a bit chatty, and breezy, but also quite thoughtful and literate. Covers lots of details that were new to me, and I've been listening to Mahler for over 30 years.
Not daunting, like the famous Mahler biography can seem
If you're interested in Mahler, start here!

[Jorge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Después de la muerte de Gustav Mahler su obra pareció ir cayendo gradualmente en un proceso de desinterés y olvido. Sin embargo a partir de los años sesentas del siglo XX, su obra nuevamente volvió a emerger desde las profundidades de la música hasta convertirla en una obra recurrente y amadísima por muchos.

A partir de entonces se empezó a crear una especie de frenesí entre los conocedores de la música clásica hasta elevarla en uno de los más grandes altares que la música les haya erigido a los más notables genios de todos los tiempos. Aunado a esta obra artística, no muy extensa, pero colosal por su contenido musical, intelectual y filosófico, también empezó a desarrollarse una especie de culto hacia la persona del músico austríaco.

Mahler, como incluso su propia hija le decía, fue además de un gran compositor un avezado, enérgico y perfeccionista director de orquesta. Su vida ha sido estudiada y analizada por muchos expertos debido a la complejidad de su carácter y a la magnificencia de su obra. Su personalidad era sumamente compleja y lo llevó a vivir obsesionado por varias cosas, entre ellas por la muerte. Era un hombre poseído, de una intensidad aterradora y a la vez un ser profético.

El autor de este libro Norman Lebrecht es un reconocido conocedor musical de origen inglés, además de un gran crítico, escritor y columnista del Daily Telegraph. Dueño de una prosa amena y emotiva suele suscitar grandes polémicas y reacciones virulentas.

El subtítulo del libro de Lebrecht reza: "Cómo un hombre y diez sinfonías cambiaron el mundo". Impactante. A pesar de mi idolatría hacia este músico yo no me atrevería a tanto, más bien pensaría en como esa música contribuyó a enriquecer nuestras vidas, a formar nuestras almas y a llenar aquellos espacios vacíos de nuestro ser con algo llamado emoción.

Definitivamente es un libro muy bien documentado, con una estructura donde el relato va avanzando de acuerdo a los sucesos cronológicos, siguiendo paso a paso el devenir de la vida del compositor con todas sus batallas, así como el nacimiento de cada una de sus sinfonías y la evolución musical, intelectual y filosófica que llevó a Mahler a poder crear la obra que llevó a cabo.

Es una especie de libro de cabecera para todos aquellos que nos declaremos Mahlerianos irredentos. He tenido la oportunidad de leer varios libros acerca de la vida y obra de Mahler y sin duda éste es uno de los que considero más valiosos y completos.

[Tracey Allen at Carpe Librum · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a non-fiction book about the great composer, Gustav Mahler, written by Norman Lebrecht. When I read somewhere that the music of Mahler was performed more often than Beethoven, I had to find out more about this man, and this seemed as good a place as any to begin.

Mahler was born in 1860 and died in 1911, and was a conductor as well as composing music. This book covers Mahler's personal life and music, much of which is very interesting. However; the reader quickly learns that Lebrecht himself has spent countless years researching anything to do with Mahler, almost to the point of obsession. The author can't resist including his own personal anecdotes here and there, which often disrupt the flow of the text. I often found myself confused, wondering if this particular anecdote was about Mahler or about the author. This appeared quite self-serving, and these segments should have been edited more clearly, or incorporated in some other way.

It was interesting to read about the times in which Mahler was composing, and how his music was received by others. He was liberal in his instructions to other conductors performing his music, so much so, that some performances of a particular symphony could vary by as much as 20 minutes, depending on Mahler's mood, or the interpretation of the conductor. Fascinating stuff! Mahler was one of the most accomplished conductors in his time, and was in constant demand, working long hours. According to Lebrecht, Mahler was a perfectionist when it came to the skill of those musicians in his orchestra and would often dismiss musicians who didn't meet his high standards.

According to Lebrecht, Mahler's music influenced many people, including those in important roles within society. (Lebrecht includes a few examples in his book). He claims Mahler was an important influence for musicians that followed, no doubt true. But did Mahler change the world? I don't think so, at least not to the extent the author has claimed.

Recommended for those interested in learning a little about Mahler, although you may find a better reference than this book.

[Kurtbg · Rating 3 out of 5]

To really get something out of this book you should have some exposure to Gustav Mahler's music. Most likely you wouldn't read this unless you did, but sometimes I pick up books for the heck of it, so no judgements.

The book covers a history of Mahler to help the reader better understand the period Gustav grew up in and participated in as an adult in the mid 1800's to 1911. This is done to enhance the understanding of how Mahler approached writing his symphonies. The book breaks down each of the 10 - the 10th being unfinished at M's death.

Why do I like Mahler? Listening to the different periods of classical music I stumbled onto this composer. What jumped out to me was the variation of themes and the complexity (I like the 6th) and that he wasn't trying to construct everything just to be pretty or entertaining. His music could be describes as a cross between Tchaikovsky, Wagner, and Brahms - but not quite.

His symphonies dealt with philosophical ideas and he used the language he understood best to work them out - music. The books lays the groundwork for M trying to understand and structure the sounds he heard into some kind of of order or pattern. He heard music in everything - the wind, cow bells, church bells, and he used these in his music.

There's also a high level of truth about reality to his music. He doesn't write dances, or music to be played at parties. As a composer he was embraced and despised at the same time. Musically, and because of his ethnicity. The idea is that nothing is permanent and things are not what they always appear to be.

I observe the same type of musical variation, building of moments, and non-conformity in the music of early Genesis (Gabriel, Banks, Collins, Rutherford, Hackett).

[Tweedledum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewers seem to love or hate this book in equal measure . Personally, coming at it as one who had just a slight acquaintance with the Mahler canon and who has not had the benefit of a conservatoire background or a music degree but who is a lifelong worshipper at the altar of classical music, I loved everything about this book. Alternating between the biographical and personal I found Lebrecht’s passion infectious and inspiring and set me on a determined course to listen properly to the symphonies in order in the first instance. At times the writing is elliptical as Lebrecht describes the influence Mahler has had on others lives, some of which he discovered by pure serendipity such as when he lived into a garden flat overlooked by the flat of Eleanor Rose, the daughter of one of Mahler’s brothers in law and who had attended his wedding aged 8! “After her death in 1992, I often wondered how a girl of 8 years old could have assimilated Mahler’s concern for accuracy. If ever I pressed her, Eleanor would say,’Because that was the truth.’ ... Mahler and truth were indivisible in her mind.”

Lebrecht goes on to reflect on how this impacted on him personally as “we entered a political era of Orwellian spin when any fact could be presented as its opposite.” First published in 2010 these comments resonate even more loudly in 2020!

I didn’t expect a chance discovery of a second-hand book on a composer who died over 100 years ago to impact me so much in 2020 , but then I could not have anticipated a lockdown for months shielding a family member giving me ample time and leisure to read and listen.

[Tony Gleeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wound up on my to-read shelf not because I'm any kind of a huge Mahlerian (I'm not) but because it was written by Norman Lebrecht, who has always shown himself to be an informative, insightful, and highly entertaining writer on the subject of music. He does not disappoint me here, spinning a lively overview of the life of Gustav Mahler and interspersing history and gossip of the day, personal observations and modern-day anecdotes. He's not so high-minded as to skimp on tales of Alma Mahler's infamous infidelities, Mahler's famed three-hour walk with Freud while being psychoanalyzed, or a variety of personal squabbles with the fatuous and self-important of the music world of the day. Lebrecht's section on conductors and recordings is also every bit as enlightening as I expected it to be. He sent me running to my CD collection to revisit several of the symphonies in a new light. And he reminded me that even the most high-blown intellects of our cultural history shared a common denominator of all too human lust and ego that always threatens to bring down the mightiest.

I'm still not convinced that Mahler matters as much as Norman Lebrecht would (passionately) like me to believe. But he got me to thinking.

[Matthew Winkler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easily readable biography of Mahler’s life that pretends it’s not a biography due to the authors own ego. Most compelling part was the introduction (part 1) where the author actually articulates his thoughts on “Why Mahler” but the meat of it is a biography despite the author insisting it’s not (how could ANOTHER biograpgy be written on Mahler afterall, the own author asks in the introduction

The author is too steeped in armchair psychology (Gustav was interested in Alma because she’s the opposite of his mother and Alma’s interested in Gustav because her father died when she was young. He doesn’t add any nuance beyond these statements and throughout he’s too steeped in Freudian psychology even though he’s writing in the 21st century) and his own strongly held opinions / biases for this to have any real historical rigor / importance (in one paragraph he writes off the music of Strauss as pure populism, capitulating to the masses whereas Mahler was a TRUE artist who will endure. Such an oversimplification that disregards Strauss’ nuanced and complex legacy).

Another example of armchair psychology that has no place in a work of any historical rigor: “It is Alma who blanks out (after the death of her daughter) … Alma’s grief is real and wrenching, but her response is to transfer her guilty feelings onto Mahler and little Anna.” Her guilty feelings being literal postpartum depression after having a child with a man that she questions if it was the right decision to marry (after only knowing each for like two months). This author HATES Alma haha

His writing throughout is tinged with misogyny and he seems to make it his personal mission to discredit anything Alma has ever said about Gustav. He is weirdly fixated on the exact particulars of their sexual relationship (quoting extensively from her personal diaries about what sex with Gustav felt like) to make no point other than “look at this writing isn’t that interesting.” Having read many of Mahler’s personal writings, you could cherry pick many quotes that make him look like a sex crazed not very thoujghtful young man, yet curiously he only does this to Alma. For example he literally writes the words, “Alma was sexually restless” but when Gustav was in his 20s and was sleeping around, having affairs with married women, generally doing womanizing habits, he doesn’t characterize this as “sexual restlessness” but rather as young, innocent love.

Idk he’ll also do crazy stuff like framing Alma’s anger at Gustav walking his ex (who he was seeing right before Alma) back home as being a young silly little woman who hasn’t learned how to have trust in her husband yet. Like idk maybe I’m young but I get the anxiety? ESP considering Gustavs history with women?

I love the music of Gustav Mahler. He is my favorite composer and what got me into classical music. But this book reads like a hagiography. The author explains every controversy / rudeness of Mahler’s life as a part of a great genius who was justified in acting this way and actually it’s not that bad if you look at it this way! Even as the author tried to explain certain moments in Gustavs life from a positive lens the reader is often led to a different conclusion from the very sources he quotes.


He’ll be like “Alma wrote that she’s miserable, is ignored, not allowed to compose, forced to give up her music, left alone, forced to look after all the parts of Gustavs life that he finds boring (and she does too), but look Gustav SAID he’s willing to give up all this for her too!! Awww isn’t Gustav so sweet!!”

At the end of the day, like everyone else (including Alma), Gustav Mahler was a human and humans make mistakes and errors. This authors account of Mahler’s life reads defensive at every turn and refuses to see him as a human, instead ascending him to this untouchable deity of music. He confused the way he feels listening to the music with the history of the man itself, who like every other man, is flawed and not perfect.

He makes a lot of poorly backed speculations related to Mahler’s Jewish identity, which while having no place in a rigorous work of historical scholarship, I actually appreciated and thought fit this more public facing book (and was interesting). This perspective I found the be the most compelling part of the biography but certainly not something the author backs up very well beyond his own musings (as an example he explains why Mahler stumbled at his own wedding as having shame for converting to Christianity, his only backing for this theory being that Hebrew words were near the ceiling of the church where he was married).

He knows how to write and unlike the dryness of the DLG biography I appreciated how fast and easy this read. But I’m surprised this is a book from the 21st century. He’s so over the top in his praise you’d expect this to come from the first half of the 20th century if not earlier. At the end of the day, I’m left not really knowing why this book was written as the bulk of it (the biography) has already been done many times over by both better authors and better historians.

He should’ve stuck with his opening and ending essay and if he wanted a book expanded it into more essays perhaps about the symphonies from his own perspective, instead of trying to pretend to be a historian.

[Sembray · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of the life and work of my favourite classical composer. This volume covers not just Mahler's personal life and how he created an unmatched string of epic symphonies but also why his work is so revered today. I found the combination of biographical details and philosophical musings on what Lebrecht christens the "Mahler Effect" to be an intriguing and surprising read, and one which chimed with my own discovery of his work and the powerful emotions it can induce in the listener. There's even a handy guide at the end covering the author's picks for the best recordings of Mahler's oeuvre and instructions on how to get into what can be an inaccessible and challenging listening experience. If you're a Mahler fan like me this is a fantastic book, and if you're not a Mahler fan you should really set about rectifying that as soon as possible-you can thank me later!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid four stars here. This took me an ungodly amount of time to get through... I blame school. Sometimes you think you'll read about a composer, and then school throws nothing but composers and their life stories at you and you have to shelve that initial composer because otherwise the streams will cross and you'll fail your test.

Anyway, I had a great time with this. As many years as I've spent as a classical musician, I've only played Mahler once. Last year, I finally figured that I should learn more about him, so I picked this up. It took me a little while to actually start reading it (I seem to remember having a false start), but when I did, I was delighted by how much this author clearly loves Mahler and his work. That shows throughout, and it's very enjoyable.

Slightly less enjoyable, and the only reason this book doesn't get five stars for me, is the list and comparison of recordings. I don't think it needs to be removed entirely, but it takes the book from musicological deep dive to sheer music criticism, which is not what I was after. In fact, right before that list is where I stopped for... I want to say two weeks? I don't necessarily need to hear the exact reasons no recording is a perfect recording, and the negativity directed at specific conductors and musicians starts to feel a little gratuitous after a while. It could have been an appendix rather than a full-on Part III and the book wouldn't have suffered. The brief aside about Klaus Tennstedt was nice, though, and I'm curious to read more about him.

All that said, I'm keeping this around for reference, and maybe once I've had a bit more experience with Mahler, I'll go back and reread it in full to see how true Lebrecht's experiences and opinions ring to mine.

[Sung Jin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a freshly minted classical music fan, Mahler hasn't been my cup of tea. My attempt to 'get' him failed over few years as I found few of his symphonies I heard live in concert halls always sounded whimsical, mosaic, structurally loose, or chaotic. Until recently I heard a symphony of youthful mysicians blasting his 5th, then suddenly the first movement has never left me that night and many weeks ever since, though it wasn't my first time to his 5th symphony. Since then I've been re-experiencing and rediscovering Malher and constantly finding how come his music, so distancing for so long, struck me to my core so suddenly and came to me.

This book, clearly written by a Mahler-geek and a devotee, attempts to answer my kind of experience by introducing Mahler as a complicated human being fighting his own conflicts and as a passionate musician. His text is mostly kind to people like me who are not musically trained, and gives ample biographical context of Mahler's life, attempting to give deeper and vivid meanings to his music while leaving the interpretation to individual experience.

Recommend to Mahler beginners like me touched by his music. Also it's clear that the author hates Alma, or at the least dismissive of her. To him Mahler seems to be the object to be dealt with reverence.

[Brian Robbins · Rating 1 out of 5]

Normally I view reading in the same way that some people view food, the kind who insist on finishing everything on their plate, or I view it in the same way that the Mastermind questioner views his questions - "I've started so I'll finish". However, in this book's case, I'm prepared to make an exception.

It had all the traits I hate most in modern TV documentaries - bitty, skimming & skipping across disciplines, shallow and full of talking-head type generalizations. It did not give a clear, interesting and informative biography, alongside well-informed appreciations of his music. Instead, it would have made excellent prepararion for a detailed trivia quiz on Mahler & his work. I think the technical term for this type of literature is "UTTER TOSH.

I'm just glad that I borrowed it from a library rather than buying it, otherwise disposing of it would have been a moral dilemma - I don't like throwing books in the bin, but on the other hand why should it have been inflicted on some poor, unsuspecting reader if donated to the local charity shop. I suppose I could have given it to someone I really don't like.

[Noam Solomons-Wise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I have become obsessed with Mahler over the course of this year and it was so fascinating to read about Mahler and his life.
The book is superbly written, and opinionated throughout which for me was exciting, as Mahler is all about personal engagement; it’s great to read someone else’s deep passion for the man and his music.
I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in Mahler and wants to discover his life behind his music.
Section 3 of the book is about interpretation of Mahler’s works. It mentions many recordings Mahler’s works and provides Lebrecht’s opinion on these recordings. Although this section is Lebrecht’s opinion entirely, it is useful as a starting guide for which recordings to look for and listen to out of the many that are available of Mahler’s works.

[Tom Walsh]

I heard my first Mahler Symphony in 1976. It was his 8th "The Symphony of a Thousand." I have never been the same person since that event. It completely changed my life and perspective of the world. That's the theory behind this work: Mahler's music is a catharsis.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned some stuff about Mahler.

[Zoe Zou · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Mahler, my man.

[Özer Öz]

Bir Mahler fanatiği olan yazarın Mahler üzerine ikinci kitabıymış. Kendisi müzik İngiliz gazeteci ve köşe yazarı. Bu kitabında onedio tarzı dedikodulu, gıybetli bir bakış kitaba sinmiş. Mahler sevenler için tabi ki okunası bir kitap, ancak (yahudi olduğu için) yok sünnet oldu mu efendim yok kayak yaptı mı (şaka olarak yazmadım) gibi abuk sabuk sorulara cevaplar bulacağınız bir kitap.

Kitabın başlangıcı gerçekten güzel sonra yavaş yavaş geyiğe bağlanan bir yapıda. Mahler'e nerden başlanır nasıl dinlenir kısmı başlangıç seviyesi için aydınlatıcı. Mahler için orkestra ve şefler kayıtları kronolojisi de güzel. Kitaptaki en enteresan bilgi ise Beyonce'un Mahler 8 küsürüncü göbekten yeğeni olması konusu. Gerçekten Viyana'da 1800 sonu 1900 başında yaşayan Austro German bir orkestra şefi ve kompozitörün nasıl Amerikan, benim bildiğim melez, Beyonce'a bağlandığı hakikaten çok ilginç ve manasız : ) Yazar bu çetrefilli akrabalık ilişkilerini burda da kesmeyip, kendini de Mahler'in great-nephew'i çaktırmadan ilan eder.

Şahsen biraz daha wikipedia ötesi bilgi beklerdim. Tabi bazı yorumları yok değil özellikle Mahler'in müzikteki modernizm üzerine, edebiyat ve psikanaliz ile eş yürüttüğü yorumları biraz daha açsa kafamızda oturabilirdi.

Türkçe olarak bu tip kitapların artması ve bunlara muhtaç kalmamamız dileğiyle.

[Hana Cai · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read and a good introduction to Mahler, especially if you are not a musician. Some of what Lebrecht writes needs to be taken with a grain of salt, but the bones of the book are based in fact. Most valuable is probably the overview of the recordings of Mahler in the latter third of the book. If you're looking to get into Mahler but are having trouble sorting through the hundreds of recordings out there, Lebrecht's overview of recordings is a good place to start.

[Billy Backhouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a newcomer both to this genre of book and to Mahler's life I don't know what to make of this. Others accuse Lebrecht of sensationalism, invention, and bias against Mahler's wife, Alma. Can't comment on the first two of those but the third is pretty clear cut.

Nevertheless, lots here that I enjoyed, and that tallies with my limited experience of Mahler so far. Next step is to hear it live!

[Devin Doherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having a good familiarity with Mahler’s music made this book very tempting. Learning about the happy the and lows of his life gave me a greater appreciation of his music. A very informative and eye opening read.

[Alex Rauket · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable romp through Mahler's life and work and a brief journey of interpretation.

Would appeal to devoted classical music lovers, both fans of Mahler and Mahler virgins, as well to students of the human condition.

[Owen Goldin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A breezy idiosyncratic biography, along with meditations on the title question -- why is Mahler so important, so valuable now?

Mahler fans will enjoy the book, but will find much with which to take issue -- on details and general line of the life narrative NL tells, and especially on the capsule reviews of recordings, with which the volume ends.

His main conclusions:

Mahler is a man of our times, as the world is fragmented, at tension with itself, and Mahler depicts worlds that are fragmented, and at tension with themselves. It is up to the conductor, and the listener, to bring it all together -- what is ironic for one might be serious for another. The emotional power of the music derives from how we are forced to integrate our own broken narratives.

Alma never loved Mahler. We can never quite understand from the book why Mahler loved Alma so much.

Mahler was always a Jew, and lived as a Jew. His conversion was insincere. The Judaism that NL ascribes to Mahler has little to do with any ancient spiritual tradition -- it has more to do with the culture of being on the outside, integrating strands of tradition in a way that is never final, leaving it all to the responsibility of the individual.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the words of the author, "(Mahler's story) needed to be told from a twenty-first century perspective. That is what this book has set out to do." Has Lebrecht achieved this? Maybe: it's certainly a deeply personal appreciation of Mahler after a lifetime of immersion in the composer's life and work. Lebrecht loves Mahler - as do I - and he conveys this enthusiasm to the reader. It is a very subjective book, with many ideas purely Lebrecht's own interpretation without any strongly objective foundation. His belief that Mahler fell down on seeing the tetragrammaton of the name of Yaweh in the church at his Christian wedding is obviously pure conjecture, and I am not convinced when he goes down those lines. The long list of a recorded history of Mahler's music is a bit dull to read and perhaps should have been presented as an appendix as reference for further investigation rather than within the body of the book. I found that part rather tedious to read although useful. These reservations aside, I enjoyed this book and I did learn new facts about Mahler and do feel I know him more deeply for having read it. If one doesn't know much about Mahler I think this book is a great introduction to him, and to read in conjunction with getting to know his music.

[claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitely very interesting... the author firstly has dedicated like half his life to this one man, so you can hear the idolizing and near obsession (not a bad thing). occasionally the sexism spills out when he talks about alma (the author does not seem to like her). he does tend to make his perspectives on what the symphonies mean, what recordings to listen to or not, what mahler IS a fact rather than an opinion, but i'm okay with that because this is a biography written by someone, and we all read different biographies to see the different perspectives each author brings to the table. overall, pretty good first dive into mahler, who i have learned is complex, paradoxical, and a genius. i would have preferred a little more information on the timeline, because sometimes it was jumping around from the US to vienna to the hague back to the US again and i didn't know if this was a reminiscence or a chronological event, and it was narrated more of a (at times gossipy) story, but i think a more exhaustive account of this man would have exhausted ME. anyways, i'll be on my mahlerthon if anyone's looking for me.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Mahler's music. I also like Mozart, Bach, Beatles, Lady Gaga, Miles Davis, Enigma, Moby, Ella Fitzgerald, etc. I think any one of us could make an argument as to how a certain musician changed his or her world. Does Lebrecht make a convincing argument that Mahler changed our world? Vienna in 1900, with Klimt and Freud and Mahler and others, certainly had an overall impact on a changing world. But for me, this author doesn't meet his own ambitious challenge. Mahler certainly had an impact on the world's musical landscape, but I'd argue that so did Mozart, Miles, and Moby.

[Marie Hew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author really loves Mahler and it comes through in his joyous voice. Lebrecht does a wonderful job blending, history, biography, music theory and period dish that easily held my attention. There is also an annotated listing of Mahler recordings from the banal to must-listen. The best thing about this book is that it inspires you to seek out more about Mahler and his music. Needless to say, Mahler is now frequently on my playlist.

[David Sweeney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Mahler and was looking for an easy to read biography. This is book is hopelessly flawed as Lebrecht is simply not objective and his analysis is from the perspective of a love sick admirer. This also effects his style of writing. That said if you want to know the bare outline of Mahler's life it is a quick and easy read. The other positive is that your knowledge of music need only be minimal but you must be familiar with all of Mahler's music.

[Jerry Knoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting composer-ography. Not a day by day, blow by blow telling, but focused on the highlights of his life, the things that made a difference. Author adds contemporary connections of his own, and reviews all the symphonies. Wife Alma comes off as quite the slutty bitch. But Gustav's composing and conducting regimen are what drives the author. Amazing stamina and versatility as an artist who helped define contemporary music.