Reddit mentions of Why Mahler?: How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed the World

Saaay!! What an exciting adventure for you! I wish you the best. I absolutely adore Mahler and in a way I'm kind of jealous that you get to experience these for the first time.

I really love his first symphony. It's such an exciting and rich piece that is pulsating with energy, and he wrote it when he was only 19! You've the second symphony to enjoy next (I don't see why you shouldn't go through them from 1-9, not forgetting that Das Lied Von Der Erde comes between 8 and 9) and that really is a different beast to the first symphony entirely, much bigger and grander if you can imagine that. It's fantastically dramatic and powerfully uplifting, it shows you the apocalypse and the opening of the heavens and and and .... and it has a choir so you will have to read the words to find out what they are singing about.

May I suggest "The Mahler Symphonies: A synoptic survey by Tony Duggan" to you? It has a short article on each symphony, and then an exploration of the best recordings of each symphony. A nice introduction to each symphony.

If you really do come to like Mahler then you simply must read Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed the World, by Norman Lebrecht. It's a biography of Mahler that explains how the events of his life fed into his music, and after reading that I felt like his music was so much more meaningful to me, so much more emotional.

Lenny Bernstein was giving a children's concert way back in the 50s (60s?) and he described Mahler to his young audience as a conflicted, double man. On the one hand, he was a very unhappy man, Lenny said, who wrote music that was terribly dark and emotional and powerful (leading some people to dismiss Mahler as "angsty", but their loss). But on the other hand, he was a cheerful boy at heart, and in amongst the darker music there is interspersed some of the most joyful and upbeat music, like a certain theme from the opening movement of the fourth symphony which Lenny describes as like skipping down the street and whistling away to yourself.

I'm rambling. I love Mahler because to me he is a very real person and his music discloses his person to me, in a way no other composer does. I was recently on holiday to Vienna and I made a special visit to his grave (which is not in the main cemetery, like the other famous composers, which is an awful shame), which does show you that I'm a bit of a Mahler nutter. But basically, yes, happy listening, I hope it gives you much enjoyment.

And why not report back on each symphony you discover? It would be nice to have an opportunity to discuss each one in r/classicalmusic.