Mahler's life

Mahler completed Das klagende Lied in 1880 and submitted it in 1881 for a composition competition, to which the "Beethoven Prize" was attached. The jury, which included the illustrious critic Eduard Hanslick and the composer Johannes Brahms, unfortunately passed a negative verdict on the composition. "Now I am forever doomed to become a conductor" says Mahler and puts his money where his mouth is. He has his first job as conductor in Bad Hall (many operettas he actually hates!), then in Lubljana and then in Olomouc, where in 1883 he conducts Bizet's Carmen with such success that he acquires the post of second conductor in Kassel. In Kassel, he has a relationship with the singer Johanna Richter; the relationship fails but we have some wonderful music from it: the Lieder eines fahrenden GeselIen, full of adolescent grief! At this time, he also writes the music for Scheffel's drama 'Der Trompeter von Säckingen' and begins the draft of the First Symphony, in which we can latently hear a bit of the trumpeter.

In 1888, he is appointed the director of the Budapest Opera Theatre, another step up the ladder. Final sport should be the Hofoper in Vienna, but there is still a long way to go... In 1889, his parents and his eldest sister Leopoldine die. The premiere of his First Symphony, in November of the same year, became a flop. Nor did his opera performances garner the praise he had hoped for. He has seen it in Budapest and Budapest has seen it with him! Time to look for another job and he got one in a very considerable city: in 1891 he became first conductor in Hamburg and again a passionate love affair developed, this time for the singer Anna von Mildenburg. This one, too, eventually ends with a fizzle, but only after Mahler's move to Vienna in 1897. He spent the summers from 1893 to 1896 in Steinbach am Attersee, where he had a "composing cottage" built so that he could compose in it as undisturbed as possible; here he completed the Second Symphony (1894) and composed the Third (1895-96). Performances of his works invariably evoke fierce and opposing reactions.

In 1886, he was appointed second Kapellmeister in Leipzig under Arthur Nikisch, whom he temporarily replaced in 1887. And this is where love rears its head again. Indeed, in Leipzig, Mahler lived in the house of Carl von Weber, a grandson of Carl Maria von Weber, whose unfinished bequeathed opera 'Die drei Pintos' was successfully completed by Mahler. During warm evenings filled with music, a love springs up between Marion, Carl's wife, and Gustav. There are even plans to run off together, but they ultimately fall through. However, as with the Gesellenlieder, we do have resounding evidence of their love in 'Blumine' , then part of the First Symphony, which was largely created in Leipzig. Mahler later scrapped this particle... The lovingly blown trumpet solo may have come from Mahler's own 'Trompeter von Säckingen'. Reading folk tales to the children Von Weber inspired the writing of "Lieder aus des Knaben Wunderhorn".

In 1886, he was appointed second Kapellmeister in Leipzig under Arthur Nikisch, whom he temporarily replaced in 1887. And this is where love rears its head again. Indeed, in Leipzig, Mahler lived in the house of Carl von Weber, a grandson of Carl Maria von Weber, whose unfinished bequeathed opera 'Die drei Pintos' was successfully completed by Mahler. During warm evenings filled with music, a love springs up between Marion, Carl's wife, and Gustav. There are even plans to run off together, but they ultimately fall through. However, as with the Gesellenlieder, we do have resounding evidence of their love in 'Blumine' , then part of the First Symphony, which was largely created in Leipzig. Mahler later scrapped this particle... The lovingly blown trumpet solo may have come from Mahler's own 'Trompeter von Säckingen'. Reading folk tales to the children Von Weber inspired the writing of "Lieder aus des Knaben Wunderhorn".