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3 Episodes 2011 - 2011
Episode 1
Thu, Jun 23, 201156 mins
Focusing on Mahler's birth, conflicted childhood and early influences in the backwoods of Bohemia, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, through his student days in Vienna and early song-writing to his emerging triumph as a conductor in concert halls all over Europe. The premiere of his own First Symphony in Budapest in 1888 shocked the contemporary audience, but this ground-breaking work, Tilson Thomas explains, contains many of the seeds of everything else that Mahler composed.
Episode 2
Thu, Jun 30, 201155 mins
Examining Mahler's creative flowering, from the 1890's to his untimely death at the age of 51, in 1911, including Symphonies 5 through 10, the Rückert songs and the "Song of the Earth". The episode also charts Mahler's mercurial career as a conductor, from the Vienna Opera (some called it the most prestigious music job in the world) to Carnegie Hall in New York, as well as his tempestuous relationship with his wife Alma. At Mahler's simple grave in Vienna's Grinzing cemetery, MTT explains why Mahler has so profoundly affected his own life.
Episode 4
Thu, Jun 30, 201156 mins
This concert includes the pivotal repertoire explored in Part 2: Mahler: Legacy. Featuring world renowned Baritone Thomas Hampson, a noted interpreter of Mahler's songs, performing Songs of a Wayfarer, the program also includes his famous and poignant love song, Adagietto from Symphony No. 5, the Scherzo from Mahler's Seventh Symphony and the Rondo Burleske from the Ninth. These highlights of San Francisco Symphony's 2009 Mahler Festival: Origins and Legacies featured some of Mahler's most accessible music. Taped over four consecutive nights in September 2009, Michael Tilson Thomas offers insight into the man and the inspiration for his compositions.