Description
'... a person should remain a 'person' and not be frozen into a legend' (Alma Mahler). As a leading European conductor, and the composer of enormous and controversial symphonies, Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) inspired mythologisers in his own lifetime. Some of them were personal friends, concerned to counter biased criticism of him in which German-nationalist, hide-bound traditionalist or anti-semitic elements were often mixed. In this 1997 biography, Peter Franklin re-confronts the myth of Mahler the misunderstood hero and attempts to find the person, or persons, behind the legends: the profoundly sensitive thinker and composer, the dictatorial conductor and husband, the iconoclast, the traditionalist. Mahler's life and work emerge as a battle-ground for some of the major conflicting currents and impulses of his period, in which Empires and ideals struggled with the spectre of their own destruction.
In this 1997 biography, Peter Franklin re-confronts the myth of Mahler and attempts to find the person behind the legends.
Reviews
'Peter Franklin has achieved the difficult feat in 203 pages of text of covering the familiar ground of Mahler's life from a new perspective and making telling and perceptive comments on the music. There are no music examples, and Franklin's style is refreshingly free from academic jargon ...'. Michael Kennedy, BBC Music Magazine
'The Life of Mahler has some extremely pertinent comments to make on a complex and not entirely sympathetic personality ... Franklin makes one think afresh about the works he describes'. The Daily Telegraph
'... a convincing account of Mahler as an insistent, ambitious individual, informing convention, convinced of his own superiority'. The Times Literary Supplement
'Clearly this book is anything but a traditional biography in the way that the factual information is subjugated to the philosophical subjects that interest the author. He is most stimulating when posing probing questions and tackling head on many of the critical dilemmas which have always been so crucial in discussing this Janus-faced composer.' The Musical Times
'Franklin is deft in his characterisation of Mahler's key works and in relating them to their context.' The Times Higher Education Supplement
Book Information
ISBN 9780521461993
Author Peter Franklin
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 460g
Dimensions(mm) 223mm * 145mm * 21mm
In this 1997 biography, Peter Franklin re-confronts the myth of Mahler and attempts to find the person behind the legends.
Reviews
'Peter Franklin has achieved the difficult feat in 203 pages of text of covering the familiar ground of Mahler's life from a new perspective and making telling and perceptive comments on the music. There are no music examples, and Franklin's style is refreshingly free from academic jargon ...'. Michael Kennedy, BBC Music Magazine
'The Life of Mahler has some extremely pertinent comments to make on a complex and not entirely sympathetic personality ... Franklin makes one think afresh about the works he describes'. The Daily Telegraph
'... a convincing account of Mahler as an insistent, ambitious individual, informing convention, convinced of his own superiority'. The Times Literary Supplement
'Clearly this book is anything but a traditional biography in the way that the factual information is subjugated to the philosophical subjects that interest the author. He is most stimulating when posing probing questions and tackling head on many of the critical dilemmas which have always been so crucial in discussing this Janus-faced composer.' The Musical Times
'Franklin is deft in his characterisation of Mahler's key works and in relating them to their context.' The Times Higher Education Supplement
Book Information
ISBN 9780521461993
Author Peter Franklin
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 460g
Dimensions(mm) 223mm * 145mm * 21mm
