Adagietto, from Symphony No. 5
Mahler, Gustav (1860-1911)
A different highlight in the city’s cultural history is as the setting for Thomas Mann’s novella, Death in Venice. Mann pulls together so many strands of Venice’s mythic status, including the labyrinthine layout, the hypnotic undulations of the water, the decadent love affairs, plague, nostalgia, and more. It has been used as the basis for an opera by Benjamin Britten (see below) and a 1971 movie by Luchino Visconti. When adapting Mann’s tale for film, Visconti selected music that would capture some aspects of Venice. An immediate choice was the haunting Adagietto by Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911).
Few composers have so deeply and personally expressed the oppositions of life and death, of loving and losing, as Mahler. From very humble beginnings, Mahler had reached the pinnacle of his profession by 1901. He was now principal conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic and director of the Vienna Court Opera, the most powerful and prestigious post in Europe’s musical capital. Yet, presaging future calamities to come, he barely survived a major hemorrhaging in February and took an extended rest at his villa outside Vienna. That summer he began work on a massive fifth symphony. Work progressed smoothly, but the real breakthrough in his life occurred when he met Alma Schindler.
Alma was one of the most alluring women of her time, and Mahler completely fell for her. They were married by March 1902, at which point Mahler had nearly finished the Fifth Symphony. The linchpin of the symphony’s expressive arc was the fourth movement, titled Adagietto. The popularity of this one movement has far outstripped that of the symphony itself. Mahler wrote the Adagietto as a love token for Alma. Even without this avowed “program,” listeners have been profoundly moved by its lush scoring, soaring melodies, and piquant harmonies. After Mahler died, Alma would have romantic connections with other famous men, like painter Oscar Kokoschka and novelist Walter Gropius. But Mahler’s musical love-letter outshines them all.
(c) Jason Stell