By the mid-1880s, Gustav Mahler's prestige as a conductor was on the rise, and as a composer, he could showcase an early work, considered his first masterpiece, a cantata, completed in his early twenties. So he could present himself to the world as a composer of genius who by now was earning his living as a conductor of various orchestral ensembles in much of Europe. At the same time, his extreme severity, uprightness, and capacity for work began to become famous, as well as the usual endless rehearsal sessions.
Leipzig
After two successful seasons as conductor of the German Theater in Prague between 1884 and 1886, Mahler felt that the city had become too small for him and that it was time to look for new paths. His next destination was Leipzig, where a stroke of "luck" - the sudden illness of the elderly chief conductor - put him in a privileged position. The performances of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung under his baton were a colossal success. From then on, his reputation in Leipzig was assured.
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| Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911) |
Soon after, he became acquainted with a grandson of Carl Maria von Weber, a personage who attracted Mahler's interest to work on the sketches of a comic opera that his grandfather had left unfinished. The task was enormous, so the work sessions multiplied, many of them at the grandson's house, whose wife was a beautiful woman named Marion. The 27-year-old Gustav soon fell in love with her.
Le au revoir
It is widely believed that the relationship was not reciprocated, but some testimonies assure that Marion also fell under the spell of the acclaimed director. At the end of the day, good sense prevailed and according to Alma Mahler in her memoirs, for Gustav "it was a relief that the train left without the woman who was going to flee in his company". However, the affair had a virtue: Mahler returned to composition and his First Symphony resulted.
Symphony No. 1 in D major ("Titan") - Third movement: Funeral march
Interestingly, the work is still named "Titan" in concert programs even though Mahler himself very early on discarded its original title. Composed of four movements, it was completed in 1888 and premiered in Budapest the following year.
Its third movement, deeply ironic according to connoisseurs, contains a funeral march based on the popular children's song Frére Jacques, which Mahler worked on in a minor key by entrusting its presentation to a solo double bass. The central trio, meanwhile, evokes slightly corny cabaret music from Vienna at the time.
The performance is by the Orquesta Juvenil Universitaria Eduardo Mata, from Mexico.
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