Gustav Mahler, Vol. 3: Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion, 1904-1907

Gustav Mahler, Vol. 3: Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion, 1904-1907 by De La Grange, Henry-Louis. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780193151604.

When the second volume of de La Granges monumental study of Mahler appeared, it was hailed in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications as an indispensable portrait of the great composer. Here at last is the third volume of this magisterial work. Ranging from 1904 to 1907, it explores Mahlers final years as administrator, producer, and conductor of the Vienna Opera. It was a time of intense inner struggle, with Mahlers energy and creative powers drained by the competing demands of running the Hofoper and struggling for recognition as a composer. And they were tragic years as well, especially 1907, Mahlers last year in Vienna, when the death of his daughter and the diagnosis of heart disease forced him to leave the Opera. Throughout the book, de La Grange offers true-to-life portraits of Mahler the human being, the family man, and the composer, and he weaves in innumerable testimonies and anecdotes that throw new light on the great composers complex personality. The product of forty years of research, here is the definitive study of a musical giant. It is, as The Wall Street Journal said of volume two, "a work of the first importance, one that nobody seriously interested in Mahler can possibly afford to skip."