Mahler

Often misunderstood during his lifetime, Austrian composer Gustav Mahler wrote late-Romantic music that was by turns moody and magnificent, intimate and epic, anticipating the modernism of the 20th Century. Mahler's work would find its way onto several great movie soundtracks, and that's where many of us enjoyed the first taste of his visionary genius: check out the Fifth Symphony's heartbreaking "Adagietto", used in Death in Venice, and sample the First Symphony, which set the tone for the cult '70s James Caan movie, The Gambler — an inspired choice, in that the comparatively overlooked Mahler picked up a cult following during his lifetime. Discover some highlights from Mahler's final period, in Next Steps.

As you further explore Mahler's fascinating body of work, we offer a selection from his late works, including Das Lied von der Erde — The Song of the Earth — which ambitiously combines two compositional forms (the symphony and the song) into one impressive and transfixing whole: this excellent recording (of the third movement) features conductor Bernard Haitink and the mighty pipes of late tenor James King. On separate recordings, the Berliner Philharmoniker does a splendid job with the brilliant Ninth Symphony (described by Leonard Bernstein as "terrifying and paralyzing") and the Tenth (Mahler's final composition). The composer's Wunderhorn period features among our Deep Cuts.

Mahler started to develop his pantheistic world view (in short: love unites all living things) after his discovery of a collection of German folk poems, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and here we've added some of the pieces associated with this so-called Wunderhorn phase of his career. "Nicht Wiedersehen!" ("Never to Meet Again!") appears in Volume Three of Lieder und Gesange — Songs and Airs — and sets a yearning vocal over simple piano accompaniment, as does "Scheiden und Meiden" ("Parting Is Painful"). The whole Fourth Symphony was constructed around a single song: "Das himmlische Leben" ("Heaven's Life").

Fond of working in "composition huts" (special garden sheds set in picturesque locations) the notoriously perfectionist late-Romantic Austrian composer Gustav Mahler bridged the gap between the classical traditions of the 19th Century and 20th Century modernism. His work was largely banned in Europe during the Nazi period (he had converted from Catholicism to Judaism), but revived and championed post-1945, and he remains popular, despite the fact that his oeuvre is comparatively small — during lifetime he was somewhat harshly considered a conductor first, composer second. His career took him from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878 to the director's position at New York's Metropolitan Opera and Philharmonic in the final years of his life. Here we take in the full Mahler picture, from first significant work Das Klagende Lied (1880) through to his tenth and final symphony (1910).