Mahler's 9th is one of the most incredible symphonies ever written. It is an immensely complex and detailed score, one that is difficult if not impossible to appreciate without the aid of a score. It also allows the reader to see the inner workings of Mahler's compositional genius, combining motives in the most subtle of ways.

Alma Schindler - the goddess, the muse, the center of attention ... How did she manage that? How did she become an obsession of so many genial men, a thing of admiration of the Secessionist Vienna? But simply - she was a remarkable woman. And also, happened to be pretty and at the right place at the right time, born into an artistic family. It was said that she had a hearing defect. She would move closer to her companion in order to hear better. Men found that irresistible.

One would expect her to be vain and conceited. Through her diary, we entered her mind - she is none of that. At least, not more than any of us. She is an insecure girl. She has fears, doubts about herself, she loves passionately... Alas, her anti-Semitic feelings are shocking. At first, she is quite tolerant and objects anti-Semitic sentiments. Then she changes. One can only find the reason in propaganda being already pretty aggressive. She lives among Jewish families, loves Jewish men and marries two of them. Why then? And how did it happen that she married Mahler so quickly?

"Please God, give me some great mission, give me something great to do!" She could have been quite a good artist. Her drawings show certain talent that could have been developed into something much more. She could have taken drawing classes and maybe, her mission would have been even greater. But she pursued music even though it
seemed that she lacked the talent - not one of her opera impressions on the notepaper correspond to the real score. She never composed a great opera she dreamed of. But she left her mark in the history of arts and love.

This book is a great document. The correspondence between the authors just adds to the value. I only wish there were more photos of Alma as well as letters that she received. It would have been nice to read passionate words of her admirers. At the end, instead of an epilogue, there should have been a short biography. And a word of two about her sisters and mother would have been valuable. What happened to her sister Maria? I guess I need to start searching.

As a long-term diary writer myself I was interested in Mahler-Werfel's diary and the manner in which the voice of the nineteen-year old woman is expressed (and the next two years of her life). Often when I reread my own writings I cringe at my ideas and philosophies when I was young and it takes some time for me to empathise with myself and regain a feeling for the person I was. One of the great features of these diaries is that they truly express the voice of the nineteen-year old, they have not been edited to provide a more sophisticated voice. Perhaps Mahler-Werfel cringed a bit at herself in the way I do, perhaps that is why she never published these diaries during her lifetime, although we do know she gave it some consideration. But I think it is important that we heed the voice expressed in youthful writings because it reassociates us with the people we once were, and hopefully gives us greater empathy with the youth of today.
The most challenging aspect of these diaries is Mahler-Werfel's revelations of her growing sexual awareness with its contradictions, rapid changes of view, hesitancies, self criticism, and intemperate admissions. This is emotional and at times erotic writing. While we can allow Mahler-Werfel the licence to say what she wants about herself, it is less readily acceptable that she describes the behaviour of her partners - some of them quite historic figures. But this is the voice of youth going through very tumultuous personal times. Most people move through these times with varying degrees of ease and distress. Mahler-Werfel's writing reminded me of Wedekind's play 'Springtime Awakening'. The awakening is not satisfactory for all - and is sometimes disastrous. For Mahler-Werfel we can only speculate.
Mahler-Werfel associated with many great artistic figures - in the times of these diaries there are Gustav Klimt, Alexander Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler. Her reflections on these figures make them more alive than many histories. For her, they were living pulsing human beings and we see them in that way.
But was Mahler-Werfel extraordinary herself? I find it hard to decide. She obviously was not your average woman of the time, and yet it is possible to see her as just a spoilt rich girl who happened to have a pretty face. In her diaries she speaks of writing a song (lied) in a day, playing the whole of Tristan on the piano in an evening. And yet her musical examples noted in the diary are so poorly notated and often so inaccurate that it is hard not to think she had little genuine talent. Perhaps someone else completed the lieder from her tenuous musical ideas. But equally possible is that she was a real talent and, as popular history tells us, was suppressed by Mahler in their marriage. To me, however, there is another reading in that marriage to Mahler enabled her to renounce her musical ambitions, which she knew would never match those of Mahler no matter how hard she worked. To be fair about her musical notation however, we need to remember that all her writings border on the unreadable (perhaps that was deliberate - a sort of code?) although the single-minded line drawings she included are quite fine in a limited way (are they all of pretty Alma herself?).
Another way to judge her musical astuteness is her reviews and critiques of the many concerts she attended. At first look they seem to match the views of the day - wildly supportive of Wagner, dismissive of Bach, Saint-Saens and even Mozart. Was she just copying the view of the day? But then there are the changes of view - suddenly the opinion on Mozart changes, she starts to see some flat spots in Wagner. This does seem to suggest self-awareness in her musical views and even if it is selective acceptance of different critical opinion she shows a capability to make the change. There is one final thought that came to me as I read the diaries - perhaps her influence was so great (it certainly wasn't trivial) that she went some way to actually forming the critical view of the day.
I was immensely fascinated by these writings. If you are interested in human development and artistic creativity I recommend you do not overlook them. One thing is certain - Mahler-Werfel was an impassioned writer as a young woman.

Alma Mahler was a fascinating woman and this diary gives an unique insight into her personality and those she knew. Her growing years, developing both emotionally and in personality come through as does her determination and zest for life. Her time with Gustav Mahler is fascinating and sheds an interesting light into his character and fears at this time. A fascinating read.

The monumental biography of Mahler by Henri de la Grange has been available in French for some years, and the latest volume to appear in English is part of an ongoing project to make the work available to a wider audience. It is unique in the sheer mass of factual detail it presents, especially as regards contemporary critical reaction to Mahler's works and conducting. There is new material on William Ritter, an early admirer who left some colorful accounts of Herr Mahler in person; a

detailed physical description of Mahler by Alfred Roller, a Hofoper associate; and much other information that will be new and interesting even to long-standing Mahlerites who thought they knew it all.

However, de la Grange's almost exclusive focus on the externals of Mahler's life works to the detriment of the inner life, and this is the major shortcoming of his biography. There is little probing of the wellsprings of the mighty Mahlerian will that powered a colossal productivity, nor of the fierce vitality coexisting with neuroses. Nor, surprisingly, is much explanation offered as to why a tyrannical ascetic like Mahler would suddenly decide to marry someone half his age, a decision that took even his closest friends completely by surprise. Why didn't he stay single, or marry someone his own age, such as the devoted and musical Natalie Bauer-Lechner?

This question is important because it bears on the crucial one: Would Mahler have succeeded in solving the central problem of his last years -- keeping reality at bay in order to maintain the inhuman intensity needed to complete his unique artistic mission -- without the tension generated by this inappropriate (but for him richly symbolic) and largely sexless marriage, for which he, and to some extent also Alma's parents, were guilty? Did he feel this guilt and at a certain level feed on it? de la Grange draws a blank on these questions. Here Alma's book "Gustav Mahler, Memoirs and Letters" is a better source, though one has to read between the lines.

de la Grange clearly dislikes Alma and would minimize her role. He also worships Mahler and will not permit him the slightest fault. Two examples: He cannot conceive that the hero may have had a congenital heart defect, it must have been acquired from throat infections. He omits to mention that Mahler's idolized mother Marie was born lame and with a defective heart. According to Alma, who'd have no reason to make this up, all the children were handicapped by the mother's heart disease; there is also anecdotal evidence provided by Bruno Walter and others. Another example: de la Grange will not admit that the finale to the Seventh may be a miscalculation, however interesting. Thus he advances a tortured argument to turn black into white, and puts himself in the position of an "apologist nervous to the point of obduracy" (Adorno's words). In the process, he

completely ignores evidence that Mahler himself was uncomfortably aware of the problem (see the foreword by Redlich to the Eulenberg pocket score of the Seventh).

Mahler is a Freudian figure if ever there was one, and one can argue that the ideal of the eternal feminine, as symbolized by the composite Alma/Marie, became crucial to Mahler's sense of purpose, a major engine of his drive to create. Toward the end, he was psychologically completely dependent on her, even to the point of spouting nonsense regarding her abilities as a composer -- this, from the stern, inflexible director of the Hofoper! (The sad spectacle of Berlioz and his second wife Marie Recio comes to mind as another example of great-composer weakness.) That he had a mother fixation is attested by many, including Alma and Freud, and this would account for his lack of sexual interest; according to Alma, sex played only a very small part in his life. In any case, artistically the union was a brilliant success, even the marital crisis at the end serving to spur him on to new heights -- witness the Tenth Symphony with its impassioned marginalia addressed to Alma. With perfect timing, death then supervened to carry him off at the peak of his powers.

Although the music has lost none of its power and can speak for itself, there is still an unsatisfied need for a different kind of Mahler biography, one that is better balanced and probes the psychology of the man. For hagiography aside, Mahler's maladjustment was staggering even for his time, the hothouse atmosphere of fin-de-siecle Vienna just barely making his unique kind of greatness tenable. A great tortured artist on the scale of a Gustav Mahler is inconceivable today, our time doesn't allow it; we've been there, done that. He would be cured or killed at once, and in either case silenced. And for you computer game programmers out there, take heart -- in addition to a "Freudian" biography, there may be material here for an oeuvre of another sort perhaps more congenial to our age -- a soft-core computer game called "Let's cuckold Mahler". In any case, the music remains.

I had read the previous volume 2 of the life of Mahler several years ago and had anxiously awaited the issuance of this, the third in a four part series with high expectations.

I have not been disappointed. The extensive detail, expansive footnoting, and thorough research that went into this work is evident from the very first paragraph.

Highly recommended for any serious Mahler enthuasist.

Much as Mahler himself towers over Romantic era composer, so does La Grange tower over all other Mahler biographers. Not that Mitchell et. al. don't do a fine job, they do. But for comprehensive detail and deep probing and understanding of Mahler's life and music, La Grange is simply at the highest peaks. This latest installment of his massive series sustains his high standards of research, realiability and readability and for all you devoted Mahlerians out there is a must read. For those curious about Mahler, this is actually not a great place to start; the cost alone to read these three books, so far, on Mahler is a bad investment if you don't yet worship his music! There are many single books that give a good overview of his life as a companion to his music, if not a real guide. For those of you, try Cooke or Kennedy, for the rest, worship here!

While this is a very fine and inexpensive edition of Mahler's 7th Symphony it is not quite authoritive. The original 1909 edition (of which this is ) was riddled with errors that Mahler corrected in his own score. There were so many corrections to be made that when the International Mahler Society of Vienna began to issue definative editions of the scores they started with the one most needing it, the 7th. That was issued in 1959 and is the version that has been used in all recordings and performances since then. So while this Dover edition reproduces the 1st edition it is an edition riddled with errors and no longer used.

I think this Symphony is Mahler's 3rd Best Symphony he ever did. This edition of the work, has everything that is played. I am a young to be conductor, and I analyized it already. I totally disagree with the viewer that says that this edition isnt the best. Well, it is the best.

A reprint of the original Austrian score at a fraction of the price. This least-known of Mahler's works may indeed be his best. A most unorthodox use of symphonic form takes the listener from dark to light, from terror to joy; this work spans all the emotions. Unusual instrumentation, like the tenor horn, mandolin, and guitar add to the bizzare but delightful concoction. It's a tie with Sym. # 4 for my Mahler favorite.

Among the things I look for in a score is the readability of the music itself. The larger the better, though smaller print is acceptable in most classical and earlier pieces and a few Romantic pieces. Not so in Mahler's gigantic symphonies. I feel that the score should be the full size of some of scores of his later symphonies (Dover). There were times where I had to squint or look twice to see the score properly.

That is my only problem with the score. These are two wonderful works and, unlike other composers, Mahler isn't beginning but nearing the peak of his symphonic powers with these "early" works.
This is score is wonderful for music lovers and students alike for it's accessibility and low price.

The early symphonies of Gustav Mahler show the heavy influence of the works of Richard Wagner. The pastorale first movement of the Symphony No.1 in D Major, the Titan, is particularly noteworthy in the way Mahler paints with music. The movement slowly builds to a thunderous climax when the brass enter with resplendent glory. This is followed by two movements that are reminiscient of folk melodies--including the inverted, minor-mode theme from Frère Jacques. It is concluded with a thunderous finale. The second symphony in c minor continues a powerful motif that now adds the power of the human voice. The thunderous finale of this symphony brings together a massive orchestra with chorus. Imagine 10 French horns, 8 trumpets, 4 trombones and a tuba proclaiming a glorius finish. Definitely a wonderful buy!

This book was a disappointment. While the subject matter was very intriguing--the life and loves of a famous woman in Europe at the beginning of the century, I found Phillip Max writing unbearable. He does not manage to give any depth to his characters. We learn about Alma and her inconsistences and caprices, but we do not understand what drives her. The reader is left to his/her own trying to figure out why Alma and the people around her act the way they do. At points tedious, the story rushes through Alma's life and does not leave the reader with a real idea of time.

The only plus to this novel that I found is that it sparked my interest to look for Alma's autobiography--I would never think to rely on Max for even a fictional perspective on her.

"The Artist's Wife" is based on the life of Viennese beauty, Alma Schindler, an incredible woman with hair of (seemingly) spun gold, who married, believe it or not, the composer Gustav Mahler, Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius and the writer Franz Werfel. All of them, including Gustav Klimt, the most important painter of fin-de-siecle Europe, loved her to distraction and swore that a part, at least, of his most profound and greatest work was inspired, both by her and by his passion for her.

Alma, while being quite successful as a muse, was less successful as a mistress and a wife, and she was certainly no "good girl." She sometimes had more than one lover at a time and felt no shame in the situation. Instead, she called herself "a collector of geniuses." She was, by turns, a seductress, a flirt, a romantic and a real delight. She was also dreadfully anti-Semitic despite the fact that she had, not one, but two, Jewish husbands, Mahler and Werfel.

This book is called "fiction" but it is really based on Alma's own memoirs. Phillips writes the story from Alma's point of view, however, from beyond the grave, and he tosses in carefully chosen bits of imagined conversation, etc., causing the book to be classified as "fiction" rather than "fact."

Alma is not a character we can admire, but she is certainly interesting. She is a restless spirit in death and in life she was often selfish and downright mean. More than anything, she is vain, but she is not vain about everything. She does realize that she, too, has her faults. As she says about her voice, "I screeched all the Wagner roles until I ruined a good mezzo-soprano voice." And, as she once wrote in her diary, "I'm utterly vulgar, superficial, sybaritic, domineering and egoistic!"

If Alma was hard on herself, she was even harder on her husbands and lovers and even her potential lovers. She was a notorious flirt who often brought men to their knees only to spurn them in the most ungracious manner. One sometimes wonders why she bothered marrying at all; her opinion of the men in her life seems so very low. Gropius, who seems like an Adonis to Alma at first, sours as well, leaving Alma bored and lonely at only thirty-two and ready for an encounter with the wild, possessive and jealous painter, Oskar Kokoschka, who is six years her junior. Kokoschka, in the end, loses out to Gropius who, despite his boring qualities is more of a genius than is Kokoschka. Kokoschka doesn't take his humiliation at all well and what he does is pitiful, a little shocking and even a little funny. And, to be sure, the humor of the situation isn't lost on Alma.

Sadly, in some ways, Alma Schlinder, whose life so depended on her good looks and her vibrant wit, oulived almost everyone around her and lost both her looks and her wit at about the same time.

Although some readers have complained about the rather staccato prose in this book, it is prose that fits exactly the way Alma wrote in her own memoirs, so I think it is very fitting that Phillips adopted this style. And while some readers will no doubt see Alma as simply vain and mean-spirited, she was fascinating...there can be no doubt about that. I think Phillips has done a marvelous job in capturing the qualities and the vibrancy of Alma that made her so irresistible to so many men, despite the fact that she never really respected them, and perhaps, never really loved them.

I loved this book. I thought it was interesting, well-written and vivacious...just as vivacious as was Alma Schindler in her youth. And that is really saying a lot.

I approached this book with some trepidation, not quite "fear and loathing" perhaps, but close enough. My reason? Simple enough. My fondness for Gustav Mahler's music - irrespective of what warts the man may or may not have had - made me think twice before reading a fictionalized version of "the wild brat's story" and how it might have distorted my own version of reality concerning my favorite composer. I shouldn't have worried.

Some thirty-odd years ago, I had the opportunity to read an English translation of Alma Mahler Werfel's "Ein Leben mit Gustav Mahler" ("My Life with Gustav Mahler"). The book was not mine, and I regret not having my own copy to this day, if for no other reason than that Alma edited these reminiscences with a rather heavy hand, lest the reader get the idea that she was less than devoted to Mahler. Of course, even then, her legend preceded her. Those of a certain age (and I am one of them) well remember Tom Lehrer's send-up of her, sung to the melody of "Alma Mater." A tune as trenchant commentary, deservedly so.

Well, if there's nothing new under the sun from Tom Lehrer (and others) from then till now, why in the world should one read this "autobiographical" novel? For the simple reason that Max Phillips has fashioned an excellent tale about a fascinating woman whose greatest adventures occurred during a time when her fin-de-siècle Vienna and Hapsburg world was simultaneously both filled with intriguing characters and at the brink of chaos and collapse.

Despite her own heavy hand at personal "damage control," there is plenty of historical corroborating information (including those parts of her diaries and memoirs that she did indeed approve for publication) to state that Alma was clearly all of these: Self-absorbed, wilful, modestly talented, unafraid of her own sexuality, a flame to the moths of creative genius of the times, a sometime muse to these geniuses, and self-appointed - or perhaps self-anointed - champion and guardian of the arts of her times, with her "Sundays" (salons at which all the rich and famous of the arts of the period grovelled for her invitations and attention). She was also beautiful by the day's standards, and suffered from both deafness and alcoholism. Nevertheless, she outlived all but one of her husbands and lovers, living to the ripe old age of 84, by that time a barely-subdued doyenne. (Of her paramours, only Oskar Kokoschka outlived her, finally expiring at the very ripe old age of 94 in 1980.)

In an endnote, Phillips begins by stating "To put it mildly, this is not a work of scholarship." While perhaps true - because Phillips does take minor liberties with the timings and juxtaposition of events and (probably) major liberties with words placed in the mouths of his panoply of characters - he is being entirely too modest (perhaps with tongue implanted firmly in cheek) regarding these liberties. For, at the end of it all, one does come away with a clear sense of "what Alma was all about," and of an epoch and its end. The latter is detailed better in "Wittgenstein's Vienna" by Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin, a true work of scholarship available elsewhere at Amazon.com. But, where Janik and Toulmin are factual - almost, but not quite, to the point of pedanticism - Phillips is downright trenchant in his observations on the epoch and in the words he puts in his characters' mouths.

At the end, the tale turned out to be both a hoot and a valuable backward glance at an artistic period and place which we in America regrettably understand not well at all. As I said at the outset, "I shouldn't have worried."

Although the fifth seems more accurate, the Sixth has so many errors that some times I just get lost. However in dover's defense I haven't found a Mahler score that hasn't left something out. An okay buy for the price range, but could be better

Being a Mahler lover, composer, timpanist, and conductor, I constantly pour through recordings and scores of his works. This edition, while a fine orchestral score, is full of errors which Mahler later corrected. While the musical ideas and feeling of the works here are present, there are some details which differ from newer editions. Do not be fooled; every note these scores contain are Mahlers own. But these are first-edition, first performance scores. Mahler was notorious--conductor that he was--for editing and revising his works after premieres. I have looked at other scores, later, more difinitive scores, which show errors, and some are quite audiable in recordings. But for any young conductor to get a flavor for the structure of these works, the Dover edition is the most practical and cost effective score to buy.

Probably my favorite Mahler Symphony, his Symphony No. 5 was the first I ever saw performed. It's a fantastic work and, unlike his "Tragic" Symphony No. 6, the tragedy from the opening Funeral March is reconciled by the exhuberent and boistrous finale. The very last section of the fourth movement to the end has a triumphant feel (and even sound and structure) reminiscent to Tschaikowsky's Symphonic finales. The Tragic 6th is a great piece to study, but, for me, can be very weary as the symphony does not more then briefly rise above meloncholy.

A great large score, the print is very readable and there a few translations for the German text (though, having a completely German version of the score, there are several instructions that have been left out). It lies flat on the desk or music stand, which is a great plus. Lastly, it's inexpensive, which makes it a must for Music students and I highly reccommend it to professionals and listeners alike.

It's hard to believe that a book this thick and on such a compelling subject could be so disappointing. It begins ambitiously, and soon peaks with a single insightful paragraph drawing a parallel between the music of Berlioz and Mahler, but then gets down to the real business: lambasting poor old Alma, yet again. This exposition proves to be British in the worse sense--gossipy, slight, and tedious. Granted there's a ton of detail proving Alma wrote down the wrong date and time for the dinner party with Gustav, but do we really care? Carr moves in the direction of redeeming his effort with a compassionate and accurate account of Mahler's time in America, his final illness and death. That is 64 pages out of 254. May Amazon offer those in excerpt at 75% off!

Having some time to kill at the Illini Union Bookstore one dark December day, I found myself browsing through Carr's biography of Mahler. On flipping through the pages, my eyes lit on a wonderful photograph, worth a thousand words or even pages, one I'd never seen before. It showed Mahler's parents, and what I already knew intuitively rushed over me like a wave. I was struck by the apparent energy and volatility of the father, and by the spirituality and speaking suffering of the mother (though she looked like a pig). As we all know, these left a permanent mark on young Gustav. Indeed, no man was ever truer to the impressions of his childhood, or flew straighter throughout his whole life like an arrow to its goal. Even the salmon struggling up rapids to spawn and die in their native pools could take a lesson from Mahler in early imprinting.

This is an excellent book for those seeking a manageable and balanced short introduction to Mahler's life and work, and I recommend it highly. Why then only four stars? Well, the competition is stiff. For one thing, there's the huge and scholarly biography by Henri-Louis de la Grange in four volumes at last count, and even this gets only four stars according to some assessments. But the main reason is that the ultimate biography of Mahler is the Works themselves, and they are off the scale.

I strongly disagree with the Kirkus review that the author is a die-hard Mahlerian who can't write objectively. The author is not ashamed to write about Mahler's character flaws.

Most of the book is about Mahler's biography, but there are two chapters which discuss Mahler's symphonies and the "Das Lied von der Erde" song cycle. The musical discussion is great except for the very sketchy treatment of Symphony #9.

The biographical details of Mahler's life were interesting, and here the author pulls in data from many sources, not just the diary of Alma. He argues in this book that the Mahler symphonies are not reflections of Mahler's personal struggles (for example, Symphony #6, the "Tragic" symphony was written during a happy period.), but the character of Mahler's music reflects his thoughts and personality (the rapid mood changes present in his music and personality.)

Altogether a good read.

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This is not biography in its best form.

De La Grange has done us a service by compiling a very detailed but largely chronological history of the events of Mahler's life. You'll find a largely blow-by-blow description of his life: compositional struggles; arguments with cast members, managers, and officials; correspondence with friends and colleagues; listings of cast members in the opera performances he conducted; reviews of his performances by the various publications; health problems, etc. The detail is extremely valuable.

However, De La Grange falls short because he rarely steps back from the detail in order to find the larger themes in Mahler's life, and he leaves that effort to the reader. This is asking too much: this is a projected four volume biography, and it will probably be well over 3,500 pages before it's done.

I imagine it will take a later biographer to come along and sift through all that De La Grange has delivered in order to write a more informative biography.

I have an additional issue with an editorial decision that's been made here. The first volume was published in the 1970's, by another publisher. Oxford has not re-published it, but will publish a second edition of the first volume when the fourth volume is published. They have styarted with the 2nd volume rather than the 1st, out of deference to those who might still have the 1st volume. Fair enough. But the footnotes that refer to content in the 1st volume only refer to chapters, not specific pages, and are thus incomplete. Perhaps the reasoning behind this is because the original 1st volume will be superceded by the 2nd edition 1st volume, and they don't want to be specific to something they imagine will be obsolete. However, at the current rate it could well be 5-10 years before that 2nd edition 1st volume is out. Will Oxford then ask readers to buy a 2nd edition 2nd volume that has page numbers in the footnotes? (The whole idea sounds like very little deference to those who might have the original 1st volume.)

This is the Classic Mahler biography by the major Mahler scholar, Henry ouis de La Grange. Though this only covers the middle years, de La Grange's excellent use of primary sources let us learn first hand what Mahler was like as a musician, conductor, and human being. No other Mahler biography is so erudite and completely non-judgemental

The version that Dover has published is pre-discovery of the original 1st movement which is now included in most recordings.