Gustav Mahler

How often are geniuses put to the test by the ironic and mocking fate? But they are moving forward neglecting the obstacles, conquering one creative summit after another, leaving behind masterpieces big and small. How many such creators are there persecuted and subjected to severe criticism who live unrecognized but are praised posthumously?

Each genius’s destiny is like a comprehensive book on life, and every work of theirs is a separate story tightly connected with their life experience. All this holds so very true for Gustav Malher, the outstanding symphonist and renowned conductor who lived and worked at the turn of the 20th century.

His famous song-cycles namely "Kindertotenlieder" (Songs on the Deaths of Children), "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" (Songs of a Wayfarer), "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" (The Youth’s Magic Horn) are of biographical character and carry the imprints of events closely connected with Mahler’s life. Each of his ten symphonies was part of his life, taken away from his strenuous schedule of the director of the Vienne Court Opera or the New York Philharmonic.

As Schubert’s successor and the last representative of the Austro-German Romantic symphony Mahler left a substantial legacy preserving its great importance till our days.