Mahler’s Tragic

Mahler’s sixth symphony is one of great contrast. Although written at an incredibly happy period of his life, the work itself is mostly dark. Mahler firmly believed in an artist’s ability to predict or even influence future events, and the Sixth, his most personal work, is also a prophetic one. The three blows of the epic hammer are said to represent the three great blows that came to Mahler after the premiere: the death of his child, the diagnos...