Customer Reviews

Mahler

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I am happy to have this volumn as I fear that Oxford University Press will not release their edition in the alleged 4 volumn set which was promised. The dust jacket on volumn four indicated that the final editing and additional material was being prepared for the last volumn which is essentially this volumn. I doubt that there would have been much added to what was issued by Doubleday. I have contacted OUP to see if there was a release date for Volumn 1. If you recall, they begain with Volumn 2 back in 1995. Volumn 4 was released in the Spring of 2007. De la Grange is the consumate Mahler biographer so I am thrilled to have been able to lcoate this volumn. Again, I would suggest that you should get this, if you want a complete biography of Mahler by this author.

Exclusive of footnotes and appendices, this work is 700 pages long. It is extremely well written and researched, and has many rare photos of Mahler and his family. It covers his birth in 1860 thru his engagement to the sleazy and spoiled Alma in 1901. The book coincided with Mahler's growing popularity in the concert halls of the Seventies. I got it for a Christmas present and lost track of it over years of moving. There aren't many copies available, so getting one will be expensive. But if you are a Mahler addict, this work will be well worth it. If you can only read one book about the Master, this is the one you want. Enjoy!