Mahler 2010-2011

Posted on 18 October 2010 in the "Events Diary" Category

On the 3rd and 4th of December, The Teatro Cervantes in Malaga are giving a 2 day performance in honour of Mahler, conducted by Guillermo Garcia Calvo.

Interesting Facts about Mahler:

Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 is one of the longest symphonies ever composed, totalling around 95 minutes. It was composed between 1893 and 1896 and is still performed in symphony halls all over the world.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 was nicknamed the “Symphony of a Thousand” by Mahler’s agent, because its premiere performance featured over 150 orchestra members and over 800 choral singers (Mahler hated the nickname).

While Mahler was alive, he was better known as a conductor rather than a composer. His conducting methods, often criticized, were highly unpredictable, daring, and volatile. He was as passionate about conducting as he was composing.

“It is always the same with me; only when I experience something do I compose, and only when composing do I experience! After all, a musician’s nature can hardly be expressed in words.”

Three events marked the last years of Gustav Mahler’s life from 1907 to his death. The death of his first daughter, Maria Anna, who was only five years old, the loss of his position as Head of Art at the Vienna Court Opera, following a fierce campaign against him based on his Jewish origins, and the heart condition he was diagnosed with in 1907 (bacterial endocarditis) that eventually caused his death just 4 years later.