The Mahler Companion

The Mahler Companion consists of a collection of original essays on Mahler written especially for the occasion by Mahler specialists from around the world. It addresses all parts of his life and work - symphonies, songs and song-cycles (each of which is discussed individually), his conducting activities, compositional habits, and aesthetic development - and sets these within the cultural and political context of his time. In addition, it responds to the global spread of this remarkable composer's music, and an almost universal fascination with it, by attempting to give an account of the reception of Mahler's music in many of the countries in which it eventually came to flourish, eg. Holland, France, Japan, Russia, England, and the United States. This particular series of chapters reveals that the 'Mahler Phenomenon' earned its description principally in the years after the Second World War, but also that the Mahler revival was already well under way pre-war, perhaps especially in England and the States, and most surprisingly of all, Japan. The selection of contributors, who between them cover all Mahler's musical output, shows that here too this volume significantly crosses national boundaries. The very diverse approaches, analyses and commentaries, amply illustrated with music examples, are evidence of the uniquely rich and complex character of a music that spans more than one culture and more than one century. The volume includes the most significant and up-to-date Mahler research and debate, and illumines some hitherto unexplored areas of Mahler's life eg. his visit to London in 1892, his sculptor daughter, Anna, and the hall in which the Seventh Symphony was first performed in Prague in 1908. It has often been claimed that Mahler, born in 1860, was in fact a prophet of much that was to come in the 20th century. His later works undeniably anticipate, often with dazzling virtuosity, many of the principal techniques and aesthetics of the new century, only the first decade of which he lived to see. Small wonder that among his earliest admirers was a collective of some of the most important and innovative composers of our time, Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. Their successors (Copland, Shostakovich, and Britten, to name a few) were to range across contrasting cultures and national frontiers. Drawing on the best resources and the most up-to-date information about the composer, this volume fulfils the need in Mahler literature for a genuinely comprehensive guide to the composer and will be the authoritative guide for Mahler enthusiasts for years to come.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Notes on the Contributors Abbreviations Andrew Nicholson: Introduction 1: Leon Botstein: Gustav Mahler's Vienna 2: John Williamson: The Earliest Completed Works: A Voyage towards the First Symphony 3: Paul Hamburger: Mahler and Des Knaben Wunderhorn 4: Edward R. Reilly: Todtenfeier and the Second Symphony 5: Morten Solvik: Mahler and Germany 6: Henry-Louis de La Grange: Mahler and France 7: Gérard Pesson: Mahler and Debussy: Transcendance and Emotion 8: Peter Franklin: A Stranger's Story: Programmes, Politics, and Mahler's Third Symphony 9: Donald Mitchell: `Swallowing the Programme': Mahler's Fourth Symphony 10: Mahler's `Kammermusikton' - Donald Mitchell 11: Donald Mitchell: Eternity or Nothingness? Mahler's Fifth Symphony 12: Eveline Nikkels: Mahler and Holland 13: Stephen E. Hefling: The Rückert Lieder 14: David Matthews: The Sixth Symphony 15: Peter Revers: The Seventh Symphony 16: Donald Mitchell: Mahler in Prague (1908) 17: John Williamson: The Eighth Symphony 18: Edward R. Reilly: Mahler in America 19: Stephen E. Hefling: Das Lied von der Erde 20: Stephen E. Hefling: The Ninth Symphony 21: Colin Matthews: The Tenth Symphony 22: David Matthews: Wagner, Lipiner, and the `Purgatorio' 23: Inna Barsova: Mahler and Russia 24: Kenji Aoyagi: Mahler and Japan 25: Andrew Nicholson: Mahler in London in 1892 26: Donald Mitchell: The Mahler Renaissance in England: Its Origins and Chronology 27: Wilfrid Mellers: Mahler and the Great Tradition: Then and Now Albrecht Joseph, Marina, Mahler, and Donald Mitchell: Epilogue. Mahler's Smile: A Memoir of his Daughter Anna Mahler (1904-1988) Select Bibliography Index

Review :
`Worth every penny. ... £50 for this book is money well spent. Broadly speaking, the book deals with the music in chronological order. This is by far the best approach, as with any composer, and it works extremely well in Mahler's case.' Robert Matthew-Walker, Spring 2000 Musical Opinion. `The Mahler Companion constitutes a distinguished and fitting monument to Mitchell'sl lifelong devotion to Mahler, and, in mustering so much talent in one volume, there is no doubt that it will deservedly take its place among the most significant publications on the composer.' Jeremy Barham, Music & Letters, Vol.81, No.2, May 2000 `The first full chapter, Leon Botstein's 'Gustav Mahler's Vienna' is one of the jewels of the collection.' Jeremy Barham, Music & Letters, Vol.81, No.2, May 2000 `Nicholson gently but persuasively reminds us in his mouth-watering little introduction of the literary and philosophical networking, the search for meaning and the questioning of existence that Mahler's music for many almost irresistibly engenders.' Jeremy Barham, Music & Letters, Vol.81, No.2, May 2000 `perhaps the largest and most ambitious single-volume study of Mahler ever to have been produced' Jeremy Barham, Music & Letters, Vol.81, No.2, May 2000 `the latest thoughts on the Austrian composer' BBC Music Magazine, selection of the best books of 1999, December 1999 `the one-stop guide to Mahler -- a volume of essays covering the widest range of Mahlerian topics, designed both for the academic and serious amateur music-lover ... The core of the compendium is its coverage of all the main works, carrying recent research, with plentiful musical examples and other illustrations' Andrew Green, Classical Music `beautifully produced volume ... a tribute that surveys the familiar with affectionate new insights ... all the articles on Mahler's reception outside Austria, both during his life and after, make for fascinating reading.' David Nice, BBC Music Magazine October 1999 `beautifully produced volume ... readers will want to have absorbed what they can of Henry-Louis de La Grange's near-exhaustive biographical study, not to mention shorter studies by Deryck Cooke and Michael Kennedy, before they embrace the latest wisdom of Mahler scholars in the late Nineties' David Nice, BBC Music Magazine `It is ... of great interest to Mahler enthusiasts as (almost) all the content is newly commissioned ... The Mahler Companion is part celebration, part vindication by a distinguished selection of early converts to the cause ... Mitchell provides erudition and enthusiasm in large ... measure ... It is good to have composers represented alongside academics (and the Matthews' material here is a must) ... including a marginally relevant memoir of the composer's daughter, Anna. It makes an entertaining read' David Gutman, Gramophone, September 1999