The Master & his Music... Mahler

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Mahler was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and conductor. He was best known during his own lifetime as one of the leading orchestral and operatic conductors of the day, but he has since come to be acknowledged as among the most important post-romantic composers… a remarkable feat for a figure whose mature creativity was concentrated in just two genres… song and symphony. Besides the nine completed numbered symphonies, his principal works are the song cycles Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (usually rendered as 'Songs of a Wayfarer', but literally 'Songs of a Travelling Journeyman') and Kindertotenlieder ('Songs on the Death of Children'), and the synthesis of symphony and song cycle that is Das Lied von der Erde ('The Song of the Earth').

Symphony 1, 2nd movement extract

Symphony 1, 3rd movement extract

Symphony 5, 4th movement extract

Symphony 7, 2nd movement extract

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