| Contents |
Introduction: Gustav Mahler and his family -- The early years (Vienna, Kassel, Prague, Leipzig) -- Budapest, September 1888-March 1891 -- Hamburg, March 1891-April 1897 -- Vienna, April 1897-November 1907 -- The last years (New York, Toblach, Vienna) -- Appendix: Biographical notes. |
| Abstract |
Hundreds of the letters that Gustav Mahler addressed to his parents and sisters survive, yet they have remained virtually unknown. Spanning the mid-1880s through 1910, the letters record the excitement of a young man with a burgeoning career as a conductor and provide a glimpse into his day-to-day activities rehearsing and conducting operas and concerts in Budapest and Hamburg, and composing his first symphonies and songs. On the private side, they document his parents' illnesses and deaths and the struggles of his siblings Alois, Justine, Otto, and Emma. The letters also give Mahler's impressions of contemporaries such as Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, and Hans von Bulow, as well as his personal feelings about significant events, such as his first big success - the completion of Carl Maria von Weber's Die drei Pintos in 1889. In the fall of 1894, the character of the letters changes when Justine and Emma come to live with Mahler in Hamburg and then Vienna, removing the need to communicate by letter about quotidian matters. At this point, the letters relay noteworthy events such as Mahler's campaign to be named director of the Vienna Court Opera, his conducting tours throughout Europe, and his courtship of Alma Schindler. |
