When Gustav Mahler stepped down from the podium one evening in 1895 after conducting the first full performance of his Second Symphony, the Berlin audience was hostile, and the critics fumed about "the cynical impudence of this brutal music maker." The response was characteristic of most Mahler premières. Venerated by a handful of his fellow musicians, Mahler was misunderstood by his public and despised as a martinet by the singers and players who performed under his baton. Now, in the centennial year of his birth, the musical world is taking a fresh look...
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