Kaliste [Bohemia] 7-VII-1860-Vienna 18-V-1911
Second of twelve brothers, he was from an impoverished family and passed the youth confidently, leaving a profound mark on his character. He was for a short time in Prague, and then he could study at the Vienna Conservatory, where he also attended the University for two years. In 1880 he began his career as a conductor: he passed from Bad Hall in Austria, superior to Ljubljana, Olomouc, Kassel, Leipzig, and finally to Budapest in 1888, as director of that actual work. From 1891 to '97, already amid artistic maturity, he directed the work of Hamburg: in the same period, he also made himself known abroad on a long and lucky concert tour, and finally, in 1897, moved to Vienna, where in ten years of direction will bring the work to an unknown splendor before then, both for the exceptional quality of the executions (Mahler had in Vienna the importance that in the same period he had Arturo Toscanini in Italy) but also for the courageous and below setting Many new aspects of theater programs. But his health was affected by the titanic effort of that decade. In 1907, also for contrasts arose within the work, and of fierce criticism, he resigned, passing to New York where he was heading to the Metropolitan and the company Philharmonic; however, returning every year to Europe in the summer, which used to dedicate the composition to the composition. In 1911 he had to stop the third US tour from returning to Europe, where his fiber yielded shortly after a relentless evil.
Symphony N. 10 in Fa Diesis Maggiore (unfinished) (1910)
Of this symphony, the author was able to fully achieve only the initial "adage," which is what is commonly performed in the concert (even if different attempts have been made after Mahler's death and holding the Other songs of the symphony, remained in the state of the sketch. In particular, the very recent one must be mentioned by D. Cooke, who has encountered discreet luck and undoubtedly remains the most authoritative to date). However, this "adage" is sufficient to give us the measure of the expression power to which Mahler had arrived at the height of his maturity. It is a genuinely apocalyptic song, a mosaic formed with thematic elements ranging from noble to banal and which also redeem themselves in the symphonic construction on a level of disconcerting expressive unity. There are moments of almost "pastoral" intonation with tragic episodes fragmented in their static, in the penetrating laceration of certain agreements that would be said at all expression. After a beginning entrusted to the Viola soloist, he attacks the "Adagio" theme, which later meets the most unexpected and surprising developments. It is a tormented, restless, and fascinating song, even prophetic in particular timbre and harmonic solutions: Mahler concluded his creator parable with an anticipator work, which only several decades after his death was possible to understand and taste in the whole of his immense and unsuspected expressive wealth.
