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Review
Pre-eminent study...with a remarkable array of detail, much of it delightfully arcane. (Dow Jones Equities Wire )
So much of it is new, or newly re-explored, or freshly and radically re-interpreted... But this is not just a biography: it is more of a Mahler-Lexicon, almost a history of the age... [it] will be seen as one of the outstanding musical biographies of the past century. (Hugh Wood, Times Literary Supplement )
this is a revelatory achievement...it is hard to see that any further Mahler biography on this scale will ever be required...de la Grange's Mahler will go on for ever. (Bayan Northcott, BBC Music Magazine )
A gargantuan enterprise... La Grange has a sharp eye for revelatory nuances in the thousands of documents from which he has pieced together his Mahler portrait... He wields immense authority. (Arnold Whittal, Musical Times )
Everything you ever wanted to know about Mahler is in here, somewhere... No-one who loves Mahler can deny the debt the world owes to his inexhaustible French biographer, the Boswell of the eighth arrondissement. (Norman Lebrecht. Evening Standard. )
So much of it is new, or newly re-explored, or freshly and radically re-interpreted... But this is not just a biography: it is more of a Mahler-Lexicon, almost a history of the age... [it] will be seen as one of the outstanding musical biographies of the past century. (Hugh Wood, Times Literary Supplement )
this is a revelatory achievement...it is hard to see that any further Mahler biography on this scale will ever be required...de la Grange's Mahler will go on for ever. (Bayan Northcott, BBC Music Magazine )
A gargantuan enterprise... La Grange has a sharp eye for revelatory nuances in the thousands of documents from which he has pieced together his Mahler portrait... He wields immense authority. (Arnold Whittal, Musical Times )
Everything you ever wanted to know about Mahler is in here, somewhere... No-one who loves Mahler can deny the debt the world owes to his inexhaustible French biographer, the Boswell of the eighth arrondissement. (Norman Lebrecht. Evening Standard. )
Product Description
Gustav Mahler was one of the supremely gifted musicians of his generation. His contemporaries came to know him as a composer of startling originality whose greatest successes with the public never failed to provoke controversy among the critics. As a conductor, his relentless pursuit of perfection was sometimes viewed as tyrannical by the singers and musicians who came under his baton. Professor Henry-Louis de La Grange has devoted over thirty years of painstaking research to this study of Mahler's life and works. His biography, ultimately to be completed in four volumes, is drawn from a vast archive of documents, autographs, and pictures, assembled by La Grange at the Bibliothèque Musicale Gustav Mahler, Paris. In his fourth volume on the life and works of Gustav Mahler, Professor Henry-Louis de La Grange covers the years 1907-1911 when, following the setbacks and tragic events in both his private and professional life in Vienna, Mahler sees a new life in New York as the opportunity to realise his dreams. Against the background of the rivalries within the theatres of the great New York families Mahler achieves his goal of establishing a truly professional orchestra worthy of that name, the new New York Philharmonic. Throughout this period Mahler continued with European tours including France where he finally met Fauré, Dukas, Debussy, and Rodin. In September 1910 his eighth symphony was enthusiasticlly received in Munich. Alma however, remained dissatisfied with this new life and its successes. Her affair with Walter Gropius revealed to Mahler the extent of the decline of their life together. Returning to Vienna in 1911 and approaching his 51st birthday, Mahler died, leaving unfinished his 10th symphony. For more than 50 years following his death, Mahler's work was consigned to the wilderness until, revived by interest and performance, it took its rightful place in the repertoire.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
1758 pages, covering three and a half years! This monster tome, three inches thick and five pounds in weight, tells you everything you could possibly want to know (and a lot you probably don't need to) about the final months of Mahler's life.
Does the subject deserve such in-depth treatment? Of course he does - and la Grange is the man to do it. This will be THE essential work of reference for every Mahler scholar in the future.
Whether it's the ideal work for the average music lover (whoever that may be...). I doubt; there are far shorter and more readable treatments elsewhere. Also the sections of musical analysis manage to be both over-elaborate and simplistic at the same time. La Grange is a compiler and a quantifier, not an interpreter, so his analyses are not really analyses at all, but lists of things that happen. So go elsewhere to find out how the music works (for all his near-unreadability at times, Adorno is peerless in getting under the skin of this profound and complex music).
Every tiny documentary scrap of Mahler's life is gathered into La Grange's study, from the fullest possible documentary account of the Munich premiere of the 8th Symphony in 1910, to details of Mahler's diet (he seemed to live mainly on butter - and died of heart disease). And sometimes the sheer wealth of information is overwhelming: from the moment Mahler decides to consult Sigmund Freud (p.883) it takes ten pages and forty-six footnotes to get to the meeting itself. In between, there is a biography of Freud, a history of the Dutch town of Leiden where they met and a full account of the 'interminable train journey' Mahler undertook to get there (we eventually know how he must have felt). The detail is incredibly rich, but finding out what you want to find out is sometimes incredibly frustrating.
There is also a sheer physical problem in reading the book. It is enormous: impossible to prop up, makes your legs go to sleep if you rest it in your lap for a long time and is so thick that it is sometimes hard to read the text close to the spine. It would have been kinder to have published it as two volumes, perhaps in a slip-case. If it ever comes out in paperback the spine won't last five minutes.
All this seems rather negative - the propective buyer needs to be aware of these drawbacks before shelling out all that money - but this does not detract from the staggering scholarly achievement. The sheer single-minded dedication of the author to his huge task is simply mind-boggling and it is hard to think of a comparable achievement in the history of musical biography. I don't think even Wagner has received this kind of treatment.
If you're new to Mahler and want to get a clear idea of his life and music, this may not be the volume for you. If you are a Mahler obsessive, you probably haven't even bothered to read this review; you already know you need this book. It's a masterpiece. Despite the problems, a rating of less than five stars would be an impertinence.
Does the subject deserve such in-depth treatment? Of course he does - and la Grange is the man to do it. This will be THE essential work of reference for every Mahler scholar in the future.
Whether it's the ideal work for the average music lover (whoever that may be...). I doubt; there are far shorter and more readable treatments elsewhere. Also the sections of musical analysis manage to be both over-elaborate and simplistic at the same time. La Grange is a compiler and a quantifier, not an interpreter, so his analyses are not really analyses at all, but lists of things that happen. So go elsewhere to find out how the music works (for all his near-unreadability at times, Adorno is peerless in getting under the skin of this profound and complex music).
Every tiny documentary scrap of Mahler's life is gathered into La Grange's study, from the fullest possible documentary account of the Munich premiere of the 8th Symphony in 1910, to details of Mahler's diet (he seemed to live mainly on butter - and died of heart disease). And sometimes the sheer wealth of information is overwhelming: from the moment Mahler decides to consult Sigmund Freud (p.883) it takes ten pages and forty-six footnotes to get to the meeting itself. In between, there is a biography of Freud, a history of the Dutch town of Leiden where they met and a full account of the 'interminable train journey' Mahler undertook to get there (we eventually know how he must have felt). The detail is incredibly rich, but finding out what you want to find out is sometimes incredibly frustrating.
There is also a sheer physical problem in reading the book. It is enormous: impossible to prop up, makes your legs go to sleep if you rest it in your lap for a long time and is so thick that it is sometimes hard to read the text close to the spine. It would have been kinder to have published it as two volumes, perhaps in a slip-case. If it ever comes out in paperback the spine won't last five minutes.
All this seems rather negative - the propective buyer needs to be aware of these drawbacks before shelling out all that money - but this does not detract from the staggering scholarly achievement. The sheer single-minded dedication of the author to his huge task is simply mind-boggling and it is hard to think of a comparable achievement in the history of musical biography. I don't think even Wagner has received this kind of treatment.
If you're new to Mahler and want to get a clear idea of his life and music, this may not be the volume for you. If you are a Mahler obsessive, you probably haven't even bothered to read this review; you already know you need this book. It's a masterpiece. Despite the problems, a rating of less than five stars would be an impertinence.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
To the reviewer above I would point out that Mahler's "heart disease" was nothing to do with eating butter, but the then deadly condition of subacute bacterial endocarditis,caused by a streptococcal infection attacking valves of the heart. Mahler had had since birth such a malformation of the heart and the condition was discovered in 1907 after the tragic death of his elder daughter, which has led many commentators to conclude that he was a doomed man from then on. The significance of the title of my review and , I say, this book, is that the author does not subscribe to this thesis and in the huge number of pages that cover the four years and five months of Mahler's life he undertakes a substantial amount of "myth busting" of the misconceptions which he alleges were spread by Alma Mahler and others. The problem is that Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony obviously confront, to say the least, problems of human mortality in a way that might be unusual for an artist who was at the peak of his health. DeLaGrange comments on these aspects in long appendices which deal with these works. I think that he is right to debunk the myths that have surrounded his last years, which have led to Mahler being considered more a tragic hero than a great genius and utterly fascinating intellectual figure, who was full of vitality and originality and whose view of the world was so influenced by the transcendental. It seems to me though that the author so idolises his subject that the book borders at time on hagiography, and for his saint he has sadly a partner with feet of clay, namely Alma, who receives highly critical treatment and a disdainful appendix of a chronology of her life after 1911. Nevertheless the work achieves everything it sets out to to achieve, namely a complete history of Mahler as man, composer and performer, and a full critique of his works. When the first volume is republished one will be able to read a chronology of the life of this great man almost as if watching a comprehensive documentary film that could not be made but it also has great value as a full work of reference. Do not be put off by the price; it is worth every penny, but do not try to read it in an armchair or in bed, it is too cumbersome. Highly recommended
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
A Revisionist Take On Mahler's Final Years
22 Mar 2008
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This final installment of Henry-Louis de La Grange's massive four volume biography advances the idea that Mahler was not a death-driven broken man in his final years; rather he was about to embark on a "new life" that was cut short by an unexpected illness. Thus the unfinished 10th Symphony should be heard as a new beginning whose final bars are a paean to love, not a farewell.
I will not pretend that I've read the entire book so soon after publication (it is actually 1758 pages! not the 1072 that Amazon lists). I will focus on the chapter that describes Alma Mahler's "betrayal": by doing so I will hopefully give an idea of rest of the book. The style of writing and presentation is identical to previous volumes. De La Grange assembles what seems to be every fact he could discover about Mahler and weaves them into a chronological narrative. The chapter covers July and August 1910 and is 118 small print pages long, including 411 footnotes of even smaller print. De La Grange quotes extensively from recently unearthed letters between Alma Mahler and the budding architect Walter Gropius (the lover with whom she betrayed Mahler) to further show how willfully deceiving Alma's published memoirs were about the affair. These give insight into the depth of Mahler's despair when he discovered what had happened through a letter that Gropius, in writing to Alma, mistakenly addressed to Mahler himself. De La Grange attempts to give an in-depth analysis of Alma's personality, quoting from unpublished diaries and letters. He also spends 40 pages on Mahler's interview with Sigmund Freud, quoting extensively from all the available sources in which Freud discussed the meeting, as well as present-day psychologists and analysts who have commented on it. Though the psychologist sources he quotes apparently disagree, this does not prevent de La Grange from advocating his belief that Mahler emerged from this crisis a stronger, more life-affirming artist - not as many would like to believe, a broken man.
Following de La Grange's narrative, filled as it is with what one might describe as excruciating detail and exhaustive psychological analysis, can be daunting, but he does manage to keep the narrative flowing. The recitation of fact after detailed fact, as in the other volumes, can be numbing, but one is drawn completely into Mahler's world during the process. This kind of total immersion may not be what the average reader wants, but it is exactly suited to a Mahler freak. And a Mahler freak is whom this book is for.
The bulk of the book (1277 pages) is devoted to the narrative of Mahler's life during these final years. There are 440 pages of appendices and a 35 page index. The appendices include 236 pages of detailed analysis of Das Lied von der Erde and the 9th and 10th Symphonies, an updated catalogue of works, a list of all of all the performances of non-operatic repertoire conducted by Mahler (one wonders why the operas weren't included), essays on the Mahler piano rolls, the order of movements in the 6th symphony, Mahler myths, and the recipe for Mahler's favorite dessert (to list just a few).
While this is the long awaited volume IV of the biography, de La Grange assures us in his introduction that the revision to volume I (published in 1973 and out-of-print) is soon forthcoming: "readers of this biography may be confident that they will not have to wait as long for the new Volume I as they have had to for Volume IV."
My only negative comment regarding this long anticipated volume is the price - nearly 10 times more than what I paid in 1973 for the first volume.
I will not pretend that I've read the entire book so soon after publication (it is actually 1758 pages! not the 1072 that Amazon lists). I will focus on the chapter that describes Alma Mahler's "betrayal": by doing so I will hopefully give an idea of rest of the book. The style of writing and presentation is identical to previous volumes. De La Grange assembles what seems to be every fact he could discover about Mahler and weaves them into a chronological narrative. The chapter covers July and August 1910 and is 118 small print pages long, including 411 footnotes of even smaller print. De La Grange quotes extensively from recently unearthed letters between Alma Mahler and the budding architect Walter Gropius (the lover with whom she betrayed Mahler) to further show how willfully deceiving Alma's published memoirs were about the affair. These give insight into the depth of Mahler's despair when he discovered what had happened through a letter that Gropius, in writing to Alma, mistakenly addressed to Mahler himself. De La Grange attempts to give an in-depth analysis of Alma's personality, quoting from unpublished diaries and letters. He also spends 40 pages on Mahler's interview with Sigmund Freud, quoting extensively from all the available sources in which Freud discussed the meeting, as well as present-day psychologists and analysts who have commented on it. Though the psychologist sources he quotes apparently disagree, this does not prevent de La Grange from advocating his belief that Mahler emerged from this crisis a stronger, more life-affirming artist - not as many would like to believe, a broken man.
Following de La Grange's narrative, filled as it is with what one might describe as excruciating detail and exhaustive psychological analysis, can be daunting, but he does manage to keep the narrative flowing. The recitation of fact after detailed fact, as in the other volumes, can be numbing, but one is drawn completely into Mahler's world during the process. This kind of total immersion may not be what the average reader wants, but it is exactly suited to a Mahler freak. And a Mahler freak is whom this book is for.
The bulk of the book (1277 pages) is devoted to the narrative of Mahler's life during these final years. There are 440 pages of appendices and a 35 page index. The appendices include 236 pages of detailed analysis of Das Lied von der Erde and the 9th and 10th Symphonies, an updated catalogue of works, a list of all of all the performances of non-operatic repertoire conducted by Mahler (one wonders why the operas weren't included), essays on the Mahler piano rolls, the order of movements in the 6th symphony, Mahler myths, and the recipe for Mahler's favorite dessert (to list just a few).
While this is the long awaited volume IV of the biography, de La Grange assures us in his introduction that the revision to volume I (published in 1973 and out-of-print) is soon forthcoming: "readers of this biography may be confident that they will not have to wait as long for the new Volume I as they have had to for Volume IV."
My only negative comment regarding this long anticipated volume is the price - nearly 10 times more than what I paid in 1973 for the first volume.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
For Mahler fans, it's like dying and going to Heaven
10 Feb 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mahler devotees (and I'm certainly one of them)--people who have come to see Mahler as more than a great composer and conductor, have an almost religious reverence for all things related to Gustav Mahler. For many of us, his music contains a view of mankind, life and the universe that goes beyond what science and art can tell us.
Although technically, he spoke German, Mahlerians know that he "spoke music." He used his music to go beyond what words say, and carry listeners to a higher level of feeling for, and understanding of, life.
This can be undertaken just by listening to his music. Yet many of us believe that appreciation for it can be enhanced by knowing more about Mahler the man, the people around him, and his world.
This is where Henry-Louis de la Grange enters the picture. Imagine yourself as one of those who wants to know more and more about Mahler and his world. You can read any of the various books on Mahler; some by his wife, some by scholars. Often, these books merely raise more questions. Where do you go for the facts and well-thought-out opinions and theories?
From an early age, Henry-Louis was captivated by Mahler's music. Most fortunately for Mahler devotees, he has enjoyed the extremely rare and felicitous conjunction of gifted scholarly diligence and financial independence that gave him the time and opportunity to pursue his deep interest in Mahler.
As you may have read in the descriptions of this volume, it concerns the last four years of Mahler's life, and it corrects the popular and mistaken notion that a neurotic Mahler died a broken-hearted man in despair over the setbacks he had faced. The 1758 pages in this volume thoroughly support La Grange's contention that Mahler's death was "a new life cut short." The book is not only a treasure trove of facts and commentaries from numerous sources that elucidate Mahler's life; it is also a model for academic scholarship. La Grange does not just make statements of opinion; he buttresses them with direct quotes from numerous sources that illustrate his conclusions. For example, he does not just state that a particular concert was a success. He includes reviews from critics and musically-knowledgeable persons who attended the particular concert. He even includes remarks that do not fit his template, and further explains why their authors may have come to such conclusions. This is scholarship in its finest hour.
Imagine for a moment, your most interesting person or event in the history of the world. Imagine that you have read every book you could find on the subject, investigated every possible source--yet you still crave more. Just about your only remaining hope would be to wait for the afterlife, and to talk to God with all your remaining questions. Well, reading Henry-Louis de la Grange's books is almost like talking to God. He has assembled and organized so much information, and has formed such cogently valid conclusions that you have access to virtually all that is known about Gustav Mahler and his world.
This is an indispensable reference work on Mahler, and a boon to all those with a thirst for knowledge.
He even includes, in Appendix 31, three recipes for Mahler's favorite, and very delicious dessert: Marillenknoedel (apricot dumplings). Thank you, Henry-Louis for your life's work. It has been a life well-spent, and we are so grateful to you.
Although technically, he spoke German, Mahlerians know that he "spoke music." He used his music to go beyond what words say, and carry listeners to a higher level of feeling for, and understanding of, life.
This can be undertaken just by listening to his music. Yet many of us believe that appreciation for it can be enhanced by knowing more about Mahler the man, the people around him, and his world.
This is where Henry-Louis de la Grange enters the picture. Imagine yourself as one of those who wants to know more and more about Mahler and his world. You can read any of the various books on Mahler; some by his wife, some by scholars. Often, these books merely raise more questions. Where do you go for the facts and well-thought-out opinions and theories?
From an early age, Henry-Louis was captivated by Mahler's music. Most fortunately for Mahler devotees, he has enjoyed the extremely rare and felicitous conjunction of gifted scholarly diligence and financial independence that gave him the time and opportunity to pursue his deep interest in Mahler.
As you may have read in the descriptions of this volume, it concerns the last four years of Mahler's life, and it corrects the popular and mistaken notion that a neurotic Mahler died a broken-hearted man in despair over the setbacks he had faced. The 1758 pages in this volume thoroughly support La Grange's contention that Mahler's death was "a new life cut short." The book is not only a treasure trove of facts and commentaries from numerous sources that elucidate Mahler's life; it is also a model for academic scholarship. La Grange does not just make statements of opinion; he buttresses them with direct quotes from numerous sources that illustrate his conclusions. For example, he does not just state that a particular concert was a success. He includes reviews from critics and musically-knowledgeable persons who attended the particular concert. He even includes remarks that do not fit his template, and further explains why their authors may have come to such conclusions. This is scholarship in its finest hour.
Imagine for a moment, your most interesting person or event in the history of the world. Imagine that you have read every book you could find on the subject, investigated every possible source--yet you still crave more. Just about your only remaining hope would be to wait for the afterlife, and to talk to God with all your remaining questions. Well, reading Henry-Louis de la Grange's books is almost like talking to God. He has assembled and organized so much information, and has formed such cogently valid conclusions that you have access to virtually all that is known about Gustav Mahler and his world.
This is an indispensable reference work on Mahler, and a boon to all those with a thirst for knowledge.
He even includes, in Appendix 31, three recipes for Mahler's favorite, and very delicious dessert: Marillenknoedel (apricot dumplings). Thank you, Henry-Louis for your life's work. It has been a life well-spent, and we are so grateful to you.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
For Dedicated Mahlerites Only
9 July 2008
Format:Hardcover
I was very glad to see this final volume finally come out. It is extremely detailed, well researched, and interesting. You learn a lot about New York in this period and many of the people who Mahler was involved with one way or the other: JP Morgan, Oscar Hammerstein, Walter Damrosch, Toscanini...and many, many more. The huge amount of research in presenting critical opinions of the time of his symphonies is fascinating, as is the status of orchestral concerts -- which weren't any better attended than those today! So any Mahler fan will enjoy this, but for most readers there are shorter one-volume biographies that should do nicely.
I only give this four stars because of the production. I wish I had kept track, but it's amazing how many typos there are in it. The author also needs a map of the US, since he mentions on a tour with the NY Philharmonic that from Pittsburgh they continue going east to Cleveland! And he frequently uses the word "alto" when he was refering to the viola. Worst of all was a paragraph that suddenly stops midsentence with blank white at the bottom of the page. The paragraph is repeated in its entirety on the next page. Then, there are many time when you have a sense of deja-vu: sometime information, even quotes, appear then reappear many pages later. I realize this is a vast, even monumental, achievement that will likely never be equalled, and that the staggering amount of information and length is a to praised, but still, I would expect the Oxford Press would do a better job of editing and proofreading. Maybe they figure that the 25 of us in the world who will actually read the book are worth worrying about.
One last complaint: I find the old, original Doubleday vol. 1 much easier to read. Why? It's on off-white paper. I don't know what color it is, but it's much easier on the eyes. The Oxford printing is severe black ink on extremely white paper and tires the eyes faster. On the other hand, I do like the Oxford presentation of footnotes being on the bottom of the pages rather than at the end, like Doubleday.
I only give this four stars because of the production. I wish I had kept track, but it's amazing how many typos there are in it. The author also needs a map of the US, since he mentions on a tour with the NY Philharmonic that from Pittsburgh they continue going east to Cleveland! And he frequently uses the word "alto" when he was refering to the viola. Worst of all was a paragraph that suddenly stops midsentence with blank white at the bottom of the page. The paragraph is repeated in its entirety on the next page. Then, there are many time when you have a sense of deja-vu: sometime information, even quotes, appear then reappear many pages later. I realize this is a vast, even monumental, achievement that will likely never be equalled, and that the staggering amount of information and length is a to praised, but still, I would expect the Oxford Press would do a better job of editing and proofreading. Maybe they figure that the 25 of us in the world who will actually read the book are worth worrying about.
One last complaint: I find the old, original Doubleday vol. 1 much easier to read. Why? It's on off-white paper. I don't know what color it is, but it's much easier on the eyes. The Oxford printing is severe black ink on extremely white paper and tires the eyes faster. On the other hand, I do like the Oxford presentation of footnotes being on the bottom of the pages rather than at the end, like Doubleday.
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