It reads like part-biography and part personal quest to explain this phenomenon. Some of the views are totally plausible, while others, such as Mahler being an animal rights advocate on account of his Fourth Symphony , is tenuous at best.
Recommended for Mahlerites and newcomers alike. Posted by Chang Tou Liang at No comments:. Show the supply chain who's boss Get a head start on your holiday shopping at Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and more. The A.
Club Store. By Vadim Rizov. This appeared quite self-serving, and these segments should have been edited more clearly, or incorporated in some other way. It was interesting to read about the times in which Mahler was composing, and how his music was received by others.
He was liberal in his instructions to other conductors performing his music, so much so, that some performances of a particular symphony could vary by as much as 20 minutes, depending on Mahler's mood, or the interpretation of the conductor. Fascinating stuff! Mahler was one of the most accomplished conductors in his time, and was in constant demand, working long hours.
According to Lebrecht, Mahler was a perfectionist when it came to the skill of those musicians in his orchestra and would often dismiss musicians who didn't meet his high standards. According to Lebrecht, Mahler's music influenced many people, including those in important roles within society. Lebrecht includes a few examples in his book. He claims Mahler was an important influence for musicians that followed, no doubt true.
But did Mahler change the world? I don't think so, at least not to the extent the author has claimed. Recommended for those interested in learning a little about Mahler, although you may find a better reference than this book. Jun 08, Kurtbg rated it liked it Shelves: fiction-non , biography-memoir , music. To really get something out of this book you should have some exposure to Gustav Mahler's music. Most likely you wouldn't read this unless you did, but sometimes I pick up books for the heck of it, so no judgements.
The book covers a history of Mahler to help the reader better understand the period Gustav grew up in and participated in as an adult in the mid 's to This is done to enhance the understanding of how Mahler approached writing his symphonies. The book breaks down each of the To really get something out of this book you should have some exposure to Gustav Mahler's music. The book breaks down each of the 10 - the 10th being unfinished at M's death.
Why do I like Mahler? Listening to the different periods of classical music I stumbled onto this composer. What jumped out to me was the variation of themes and the complexity I like the 6th and that he wasn't trying to construct everything just to be pretty or entertaining.
His music could be describes as a cross between Tchaikovsky, Wagner, and Brahms - but not quite. His symphonies dealt with philosophical ideas and he used the language he understood best to work them out - music.
The books lays the groundwork for M trying to understand and structure the sounds he heard into some kind of of order or pattern. He heard music in everything - the wind, cow bells, church bells, and he used these in his music. There's also a high level of truth about reality to his music. He doesn't write dances, or music to be played at parties.
As a composer he was embraced and despised at the same time. Musically, and because of his ethnicity. The idea is that nothing is permanent and things are not what they always appear to be. I observe the same type of musical variation, building of moments, and non-conformity in the music of early Genesis Gabriel, Banks, Collins, Rutherford, Hackett.
Feb 27, Tony Gleeson rated it really liked it. This book wound up on my to-read shelf not because I'm any kind of a huge Mahlerian I'm not but because it was written by Norman Lebrecht, who has always shown himself to be an informative, insightful, and highly entertaining writer on the subject of music.
He does not disappoint me here, spinning a lively overview of the life of Gustav Mahler and interspersing history and gossip of the day, personal observations and modern-day anecdotes. He's not so high-minded as to skimp on tales of Alma Ma This book wound up on my to-read shelf not because I'm any kind of a huge Mahlerian I'm not but because it was written by Norman Lebrecht, who has always shown himself to be an informative, insightful, and highly entertaining writer on the subject of music.
He's not so high-minded as to skimp on tales of Alma Mahler's infamous infidelities, Mahler's famed three-hour walk with Freud while being psychoanalyzed, or a variety of personal squabbles with the fatuous and self-important of the music world of the day. Lebrecht's section on conductors and recordings is also every bit as enlightening as I expected it to be. He sent me running to my CD collection to revisit several of the symphonies in a new light. And he reminded me that even the most high-blown intellects of our cultural history shared a common denominator of all too human lust and ego that always threatens to bring down the mightiest.
I'm still not convinced that Mahler matters as much as Norman Lebrecht would passionately like me to believe. But he got me to thinking. Sep 22, Steve rated it it was amazing.
Highly readable, witty, a bit chatty, and breezy, but also quite thoughtful and literate. Covers lots of details that were new to me, and I've been listening to Mahler for over 30 years. Not daunting, like the famous Mahler biography can seem If you're interested in Mahler, start here! View 1 comment. Brenton Sanderson: The clear tendency among Jewish intellectuals has been for Jewish achievement to be overstated and particularized and made a locus for ethnic pride.
Meanwhile, European achievement is downplayed, or where undeniable, universalized and thereby neutralized as a potential basis for White pride and group cohesion. From a group strategic perspective it is the psychological complement to exaggerating anti-Semitism as a way of promoting Jewish group cohesion. Lastly, portray this brilliant Jewish world-changing figure as subject to the unjust persecution of a hostile, and deeply immoral, non-Jewish outgroup in this case the society of fin de siecle Vienna.
While crude, this is a highly effective strategy and a compelling example of a type of intellectual activity which, in essence, constitutes a form of ethnic warfare. Reviewers seem to love or hate this book in equal measure. Personally, coming at it as one who had just a slight acquaintance with the Mahler canon and who has not had the benefit of a conservatoire background or a music degree but who is a lifelong worshipper at the altar of classical music, I loved everything about this book.
Mahler and truth were indivisible in her mind. Apr 18, Hana Cai rated it liked it. An entertaining read and a good introduction to Mahler, especially if you are not a musician. Some of what Lebrecht writes needs to be taken with a grain of salt, but the bones of the book are based in fact.
Most valuable is probably the overview of the recordings of Mahler in the latter third of the book. If you're looking to get into Mahler but are having trouble sorting through the hundreds of recordings out there, Lebrecht's overview of recordings is a good place to start.
Mar 03, Devin Doherty rated it it was amazing. Learning about the happy the and lows of his life gave me a greater appreciation of his music. A very informative and eye opening read. An enjoyable romp through Mahler's life and work and a brief journey of interpretation. Would appeal to devoted classical music lovers, both fans of Mahler and Mahler virgins, as well to students of the human condition.
May 31, Sung Jin rated it really liked it. As a freshly minted classical music fan, Mahler hasn't been my cup of tea. My attempt to 'get' him failed over few years as I found few of his symphonies I heard live in concert halls always sounded whimsical, mosaic, structurally loose, or chaotic.
Until recently I heard a symphony of youthful mysicians blasting his 5th, then suddenly the first movement has never left me that night and many weeks ever since, though it wasn't my first time to his 5th symphony. Since then I've been re-experiencin As a freshly minted classical music fan, Mahler hasn't been my cup of tea.
Since then I've been re-experiencing and rediscovering Malher and constantly finding how come his music, so distancing for so long, struck me to my core so suddenly and came to me.
This book, clearly written by a Mahler-geek and a devotee, attempts to answer my kind of experience by introducing Mahler as a complicated human being fighting his own conflicts and as a passionate musician. His text is mostly kind to people like me who are not musically trained, and gives ample biographical context of Mahler's life, attempting to give deeper and vivid meanings to his music while leaving the interpretation to individual experience.
Recommend to Mahler beginners like me touched by his music. Also it's clear that the author hates Alma, or at the least dismissive of her. To him Mahler seems to be the object to be dealt with reverence. Solid four stars here. This took me an ungodly amount of time to get through I blame school. Sometimes you think you'll read about a composer, and then school throws nothing but composers and their life stories at you and you have to shelve that initial composer because otherwise the streams will cross and you'll fail your test.
Anyway, I had a great time with this. As many years as I've spent as a classical musician, I've only played Mahler once.
Last year, I finally figured that I should lea Solid four stars here. Last year, I finally figured that I should learn more about him, so I picked this up. It took me a little while to actually start reading it I seem to remember having a false start , but when I did, I was delighted by how much this author clearly loves Mahler and his work.
That shows throughout, and it's very enjoyable. Slightly less enjoyable, and the only reason this book doesn't get five stars for me, is the list and comparison of recordings.
I don't think it needs to be removed entirely, but it takes the book from musicological deep dive to sheer music criticism, which is not what I was after. In fact, right before that list is where I stopped for I want to say two weeks?
I don't necessarily need to hear the exact reasons no recording is a perfect recording, and the negativity directed at specific conductors and musicians starts to feel a little gratuitous after a while. It could have been an appendix rather than a full-on Part III and the book wouldn't have suffered. The brief aside about Klaus Tennstedt was nice, though, and I'm curious to read more about him.
All that said, I'm keeping this around for reference, and maybe once I've had a bit more experience with Mahler, I'll go back and reread it in full to see how true Lebrecht's experiences and opinions ring to mine. Feb 19, Owen Goldin rated it really liked it.
A breezy idiosyncratic biography, along with meditations on the title question -- why is Mahler so important, so valuable now? Mahler fans will enjoy the book, but will find much with which to take issue -- on details and general line of the life narrative NL tells, and especially on the capsule reviews of recordings, with which the volume ends.
His main conclusions: Mahler is a man of our times, as the world is fragmented, at tension with itself, and Mahler depicts worlds that are fragmented, and A breezy idiosyncratic biography, along with meditations on the title question -- why is Mahler so important, so valuable now?
His main conclusions: Mahler is a man of our times, as the world is fragmented, at tension with itself, and Mahler depicts worlds that are fragmented, and at tension with themselves. It is up to the conductor, and the listener, to bring it all together -- what is ironic for one might be serious for another. The emotional power of the music derives from how we are forced to integrate our own broken narratives.
Alma never loved Mahler. We can never quite understand from the book why Mahler loved Alma so much. Mahler was always a Jew, and lived as a Jew. His conversion was insincere. The Judaism that NL ascribes to Mahler has little to do with any ancient spiritual tradition -- it has more to do with the culture of being on the outside, integrating strands of tradition in a way that is never final, leaving it all to the responsibility of the individual. In the words of the author, " Mahler's story needed to be told from a twenty-first century perspective.
That is what this book has set out to do. Maybe: it's certainly a deeply personal appreciation of Mahler after a lifetime of immersion in the composer's life and work.
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