Mahler: A Biography - Hardcover

Carr, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0879518022 ISBN 13: 9780879518028

Publisher: Overlook Books, 1997

Synopsis

The focus is on Mahler’s last decade, his tempestuous marriage to the alluring Alma Schindler, his work as a "summer composer" in isolated huts in the country, his revolutionary achievements as director of the Vienna opera and his final years in America. But it sets the stage by looking into Mahler’s earlier career as a talented, ambitious, and often ruthless conductor. 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." Jonathan Carr looks behind these myths, and using letters, diaries, and other material hitherto unavailable in English, he brilliantly challenges some of the most widely held assumptions about Mahler.

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Reviews

A useful reference tool, somewhat marred by the author's zeal to make everyone a Mahler maniac. Some biographers scribe the life of their subject and let the reader decide whether the subject was Satan or saint. Others can't resist luring the reader to their point of view. Carr, a former correspondent for the Financial Times and the Economist (Helmut Schmidt, 1985, etc.), falls in the latter category in a biography of Gustav Mahler (18601911) that openly tries to ``correct'' other histories of the famous composer/conductor. Of Mahler's oft-described ``reign of terror'' as conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic--he replaced about 80 instrumentalists, including more than 30 wind players, in his decade at the podium- -Carr notes, ``Mahler surely acted not from spite but from the highest artistic motives.'' Mahler's wife, Alma Schindler, meanwhile, is portrayed as a selfish, manipulative woman whose memoirs, long a primary basis on which history has judged Mahler, are according to Carr filled with errors and attempts to make herself look better. Using letters, diaries, and other materials not previously available in English, Carr repeatedly debunks Alma's claims about Mahler and their relationship. He quotes, for instance, her editing of Mahler's letters to her. A letter from Mahler that asked Alma to ``answer . . . if you are able to follow me'' was amended in Alma's memoirs to read ``answer . . . if you are willing to follow me.'' While Alma's apparent misperceptions are probably worthy of correction, the lack of objectivity by the author is so blatant at times, it makes the reader doubt other valid points he tries to make. The book, however, is not without interesting revelations. Carr's analyses of Mahler's symphonies, both in their relationships to one another and to his various philosophies, are unique and stimulating. Classical music aficionados either love Mahler or they don't. Those who read this biography will likely fall into similar camps. (35 b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Mahler (1860^-1911) is remembered now as a composer of symphonies and songs, but in his lifetime he was primarily an ambitious conductor. He started his career at the theater in Bad Hall in 1880 and achieved his goal to be music director of the Vienna Court Opera in 1897. He left that position to conduct New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1908 and then the reformed New York Philharmonic in 1909. A meticulous conductor, he insisted on adequate rehearsal time to perfect the details. He devoted summers in the Austrian mountains to composition, and, never very sociable, except when he needed to gain a favor from an influential person, insisted on peace, quiet, and solitude while he composed. Carr links the events in Mahler's life, such as his marriage to Alma Schindler in 1902 and the death of his first daughter and the diagnosis of his heart condition in 1907, as well as his fascination with Oriental mysticism to his compositions. Carr explores Mahler's life and music in the manner of a friend who sheds new light on the innovative composer. Alan Hirsch

Carr, a British journalist living in Germany, has been researching Gustav Mahler's life and attending performances of his music since 1960. His concise, caring portrait turns flinty (and more captivating) whenever Mahler's wife, Alma, is the subject. By turns Carr describes, quotes, argues with, dismisses, apparently mistranslates, and yields to her, making plain his conflicting feelings toward her. Catalogers of this book should add a subject entry for Alma, for just over half the book focuses on Mahler's life and music after marriage. A popular, opinionated treatment using new evidence from a postcard here, an item "tucked away" in an archive there, this book ends with a useful bibliographic/discographic essay. A good choice for biography collections.ABonnie Jo Dopp, Performing Arts Lib., Univ. of Maryland Lib.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Overlook Books
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0879518022
• ISBN 13: 9780879518028
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320