#bohemain

Scrapbook Diary Stories from Lamonzie-Montastruc

Bohemian dreams

OTD in Music History: Legendary composer and conductor Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911) leads the Vienna Philharmonic in the Viennese premiere of his own First Symphony, in 1900. (This concert also featured undoubtedly memorable performances of Ludwig van Beethoven's [1770 - 1827] "The Creatures of Prometheus" Overture and Robert Schumann's [1810 - 1856] "Manfred" Overture.)

The Mahler work had technically received its world premiere in Budapest way back in 1889; at that time, however, it was cast as a five-movement descriptive symphonic poem and presented under the title "Symphonische Dichtung in zwei Teilen" ("Symphonic Poem in two Parts"). Mahler gave two further performances of this version of the piece, in Hamburg and in Weimar -- and then he withdrew it, dropped the title and the descriptive movement titles, and substantially revised the entire thing (including cutting one of the movements in its entirety).

The world premiere of the *revised* version (now billed as Mahler's "1st Symphony") didn't occur until 1896, in Berlin. The 1900 Viennese premiere was only the 4th performance ever given of this this revised and retitled masterpiece, which still holds a place among the most popular symphonies ever written.