Mahler Symphony No. 6
In summer 1903, Mahler was at his happiest time of
life. Married to the beautiful Alma and
father to two healthy daughters, it doesn’t seem like the time when one would
compose a symphony often called the Tragic. However, in an eerily prescient stroke, this
is exactly what Mahler does. In the
years that followed, Mahler suffered the death of a child, the loss of his
position in Vienna, and learned of his debilitating heart disease—three blows
of fate predicted by the blows of the drum that fell the Hero at the close of
Symphony No. 6.
