Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) was an Austrian Romantic composer and conductor who, alongside Bruckner, was the supreme architect of the late Romantic symphony. Born in Kaliště, Bohemia (now Czech Republic), he studied at the Vienna Conservatory and went on to have a brilliant conducting career, serving as director of the Vienna Court Opera from 1897 to 1907 — a decade that transformed the institution — and later of the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic.

Mahler composed nine completed symphonies (a tenth was left unfinished) and several major song cycles: Songs of a Wayfarer, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). Das Lied von der Erde (1908–09), a symphony in all but name for two soloists and orchestra set to Chinese poems in Hans Bethge's German translations, is Mahler at his most profound and valedictory — a work of extraordinary beauty that meditates on transience, beauty, loss and acceptance. Kenneth MacMillan used it for Song of the Earth (1965), working with the recorded music after the Vienna State Opera initially refused permission for a live performance; MacMillan regarded it as his greatest ballet.

Mahler's symphonies — particularly the Fifth, Sixth and Ninth — and his song cycles have placed him at the centre of the late Romantic canon. His music was largely neglected after his death but underwent a major revival in the 1960s, partly championed by Leonard Bernstein.