When Gustav Mahler was still alive his music had already found extraordinarily strong responses in what is today the Czech Republic. The Prague environment in particular created a certain type of cult, which was certainly associated with the fact that Mahler was considered a Czech compatriot, that the first reviews already took notice of the “Czech” intonation in the background of Mahler’s compositions and that he worked in Prague for one season. Certain proof of this Prague “Mahlerianism” was the fact that the world premiere of Mahler’s 7th Symphony took place in Prague and that a richly developed Mahlerian tradition exists there to this day, interrupted only by the Nazi occupation period. It is also necessary to name the prominent personalities of the Czech environment who contributed to the dissemination of Mahler’s work both at the beginning of twentieth century and closely after his death. They were Josef Bohuslav Foerster, Zdeněk Nejedlý, author of the first Czech monograph of 1912, and Otakar Ostrčil. Even when there were a number of great conductor personalities who performed the Gustav Mahler’s works, probably the most marked trace in the history of Mahlerian interpretation was left by the principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Neumann, who also recorded the still-valuable complete collection of all Mahler’s symphonic works and collaborated in a great celebration of Gustav Mahler’s birth in 1960. Almost in parallel with Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Rafael Kubelík recorded the complete collection of Mahler’s symphonies, very well appreciated by international critics, with the Bavarian Radio Symphonic Orchestra from 1967 to 1971.
Only an unbelievably extensive study could record all the performances of Gustav Mahler’s music and recordings of his works on a worldwide scale. With the exception of the Antarctic (and even there Mahler’s music is certainly heard from recordings at some polar stations), at the beginning of the twenty-first century there is no continent where the compositions of Gustav Mahler do not appear regularly in the repertoire of symphonic orchestras. Also, it is very difficult to find a conductor who had not conducted some of the works of Gustav Mahler at least once, but rather several times. And so, with only a necessary simplification, let’s mention at least some of the personalities who have promulgated Mahler’s work. Certainly Mahler’s close friend, faithful interpreter, and conductor of his work, Bruno Walter (1876–1962) was a great promoter. Another great conductor and founder of tradition with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Netherlands was Willem Mengelberg (1871–1951). Bernard Haitink (1929–2021) was also linked to Mengelberg’s Mahlerianism. By the way, in 1920 one of the first Gustav Mahler festivals took place in Amsterdam. Leonard Bernstein (1918–1990), who began to record the first complete collection of all of Mahler’s symphonies with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in stereo in 1960, made his mark in the history of Mahlerian interpretation in an unforgettable way. It was Bernstein who initiated the new wave of interest in Gustav Mahler’s works in Europe through his recordings and performances of Mahler’s works on his tours. At present the principal conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas (1944), whose recordings of Gustav Mahler’s works belong among the most significant present initiatives and receive the most prestigious acknowledgements, follows Bernstein. Like Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas also devotes himself to popularizing Gustav Mahler’s work in his Keeping Score series of programs. The conductor Claudio Abbado (1933) also engaged in the history of the dissemination of Mahler’s music by founding the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchestra in 1986. The legends also include the Mahlerian recordings of Sir George Solti (1912–1997). The principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Sir Simon Denis Rattle (1955) also engages in performing and recording Gustav Mahler work, as do a number of other conductors around the world.
prof. PhDr. Jiří Štilec, CSc.
