Gustav Mahler. Visionary and Despot : Portrait of A Personality- Translated by Ernest Bernhardt-Kabisch

With the terms «visionary» and «despot», the author seeks to circumscribe the multilayered personality of Gustav Mahler. Opening up a terra incognita, he draws a comprehensive map of the various aspects of Mahler's inner biography: his unshakable belief in the «sacredness of musical art» and strongly developed sense of mission, his double life as conductor and composer, his inexorability and refusal to compromise vis-à-vis himself and others, his discomfort with the world in which he lived, the complex facets of his psyche and his enormous energy potential. The result is the disclosure of new and unexpected connections between Mahler's personality and his œuvre. Content: Preface Part 1: "My entire life is one great homesickness" Portrait of a Personality Sense of Life -- The Inner Biography A Complex Personality Conductor and Creative Artist -- A Double Life The "Champion of the Sacred" The Despot An Effervescent Temperament Conflict Situations -- The "Most Painful Rivalry" Jewishness and Anti-Semitism Unworldliness and States of Transport "High-Spirited Existence" Alma: The "Ascetic" and the Life-LovingWoman Plates Part 2: "Mine is a Lived Music" Personality and Oeuvre Human and Artistic Personality. "The First Work of Mine in Which I Found Myself as 'Mahler'" -- The Fairytale Play Das klagende LiedPrinciples of Lied Creation The Songs of aWayfarer Tragic Irony and Ambivalence The "God-Seeker" The Creation Myth in the Third Symphony The Problem of Suffering in Creation Humor Liebestod -- Toward Interpreting the Tenth Symphony The "Beatification" Afterword: Why is Mahler's Music so in Vogue Today? Appendix Abbreviations Notes Biographical Dates Members of Mahler's Circle of Friends, Acquaintances and Colleagues Bibliography Index of Persons Index ofWorks.