Sunday, July 7 is Gustav Mahler's birthday — if you're craving something else (classical) to celebrate after the long Fourth of July weekend. Mahler worked his way up through the conducting ranks, becoming known for his exacting opera productions. By the age of 28, he was named chief conductor of the Royal Hungarian Opera, Budapest. Ten years after that he assumed the most prestigious musical position in the old Austrian Empire, director of the Vienna Court Opera.
But isn’t Mahler famous for his of nine (and a half) symphonies? Yes, but the symphonies have a lot of singing in them, several use themes and quotations from his songs, and he wrote great sets of songs throughout his career. Also, when you open a Mahler orchestra score, it’s clear that the composer spent most of his time conducting: There are all kinds of detailed performance notes in the scores (Such as: “If the tuba player can’t play softly enough, give this note to the contrabassoonist.”)
Mahler’s symphonies are long, which lets them encompass a huge range of contrasting emotion and styles, and the orchestra is pushed to extraordinary virtuosity (which is one reason why they like to play Mahler so much.) Find out more about the composer and his music, listen to some excerpts, watch video, and more in the Composer Gallery.