He came here with a tremendous career behind him. It was strange, having all his life led operas and produced them in lavish fashion, he did not write one! But he did write many beautiful and very difficult songs. When his works are given, it is usually made a gala occasion, as they can only be done by the largest organizations and with the greatest artists. The Society of the Friends of Music give some work by Mahler each season in New York.
Gustav Mahler was born in Kalischt, Bohemia, and died in Vienna. He studied philosophy at the Vienna University and among his teachers of music were Julius Epstein and Anton Bruckner.
When Anton Seidl left the opera house of Prague, 1885–86, Gustav Mahler jointly with Angelo Neumann succeeded him. He made a great success of the Court Opera of Vienna where he was director of the house and conductor for ten years, but he demanded nothing short of perfection. His insistent ardor for the best in music and in its performance caused him the greatest unhappiness and really cost him his life.
Max Reger
Max Reger (1873–1916) caused a stir during the latter part of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. His father, a schoolmaster and good organist, wanted Max to be a schoolteacher, but at an early age young Max began to write for piano and organ. After hearing Die Meistersinger and Parsifal in Bayreuth (1888) he was so stirred that he began to write big works. Reger was perhaps most influenced by Bach, and notwithstanding his very modern ideas he never lost sight of the old classic form which may have made his work seem stiff and formal at times. Some of his songs are very fine and his orchestral numbers are frequently played in America.
Max Bruch (1838–1920) was born in Berlin and besides being a composer of chamber music, three symphonies and familiar violin concertos, he wrote many choral works.
Father Franck
From this period, but not from this same country, arose one of the most important and most beautiful influences of the 19th century. We have learned enough about the world’s great men to know that we can never judge by appearances, unless we are keen enough to recognize a beautiful soul when it looks through kindly eyes.
Such was the countenance of César Franck (born in Liège, Belgium, 1820—died in Paris, 1890), often called the “French Brahms”—but he was neither French, nor was he enough like Brahms to have been so called. While César Franck was not French, we may say that the entire French school of the second half of the 19th century was of his making. This, because instead of devoting himself to playing in public and making long concert tours, he preferred to have a quiet home life so that he could compose. This seriously disappointed his father who had sent him from Liège to the Paris Conservatory.
He was but five years of age when Beethoven died, but his work throughout his entire life strongly showed the influence of the Master of Bonn, perhaps because his first teacher in Paris was Anton Reicha, a friend and admirer of Beethoven.