Gustav Mahler, Vol. 3: Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion, 1904-1907

Gustav Mahler #3

by Henry-Louis de La Grange, Stewart Spencer (translator), Alfred Clayton (translator)

When the second volume of de La Grange's monumental study of Mahler appeared, it was hailed in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications as an indispensable portrait of the great composer. Here at last is the third volume of this magisterial work.
Ranging from 1904 to 1907, it explores Mahler's final years as administrator, producer, and conductor of the Vienna Opera. It was a time of intense inner struggle, with Mahler's energy and creative powers drained by the competing demands of running the Hofoper and struggling for recognition as a composer. And they were tragic years as well, especially 1907, Mahler's last year in Vienna, when the death of his daughter and the diagnosis of heart disease forced him to leave the Opera. Throughout the book, de La Grange offers true-to-life portraits of Mahler the human being, the family man, and the composer, and he weaves in innumerable testimonies and anecdotes that throw new light on the great composer's complex personality.
The product of forty years of research, here is the definitive study of a musical giant. It is, as The Wall Street Journal said of volume two, "a work of the first importance, one that nobody seriously interested in Mahler can possibly afford to skip."

Translated, enlarged and updated by Stewart Spencer, Alfred Clayton


>Note:
Whilst the original French work consists of 3 volumes
1. Gustav Mahler, chronique d'une vie I Vers la gloire 1860-1900;
2. Gustav Mahler, chronique d'une vie II L'age d'or de Vienne 1900-1907;
3. Gustav Mahler, chronique d'une vie III Le genie foudroyé 1907-1911.
whereas the English translation of this biografy knows 4 volumes with a time frame differting from the original work:
1. Gustav Mahler I
2. Gustav Mahler II Vienna, the years of challenge (1897-1904);
3. Gustav Mahler III Vienna, triumph and desillusion (1904-1907);
4. Gustav Mahler IV A New Life Cut Short (1907-1911).

Genres: Music, Biography, Classical Music

1000 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 2000

About the author

The son of an American mother and French father who was a senator and former governor minister, Henry Louis de la Grange studied the humanities in Paris and New York and literature at Aix-en-Provence University and at the Sorbonne. It was in 1945 when attending a performance of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter that he first became interested in the composer. He began what became a lifelong investigation of Mahler's life and works, the research of which formed the basis of his multi-volume biography of the composer.

Reviews

[Michael]

I don't know when I will ever finish this book. I go through it from time to time and study it depending on whatever Mahler symphony has my attention.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awaiting the fourth volume before I embark on the entire series....the agony of waiting is killing me!

[Tom Walsh]

These volumes by the author Henry-Louis De LA Grange contain the ultimate last word on the composer. I love the 8th Symphony of Mahler.