Editing Gustav Mahler (section)

===Budapest and Hamburg, 1888–1897===

====Royal Opera, Budapest====
On arriving in Budapest in October 1888, Mahler encountered a cultural conflict between conservative Hungarian nationalists who favoured a policy of [[Magyarisation]], and progressives who wanted to maintain and develop the country's Austro-German cultural traditions. In the opera house a dominant conservative caucus, led by the music director Sándor Erkel, had maintained a limited repertory of historical and folklore opera. By the time that Mahler began his duties, the progressive camp had gained ascendancy following the appointment of the liberal-minded Ferenc von Beniczky as [[opera manager|intendant]].<ref name=Franklin5>Franklin, (5. Budapest 1888–91).</ref> Aware of the delicate situation, Mahler moved cautiously; he delayed his first appearance on the conductor's stand until January 1889, when he conducted Hungarian-language performances of Wagner's {{lang|de|[[Das Rheingold]]}} and {{lang|de|[[Die Walküre]]}} to initial public acclaim.<ref name=Sadie509>Sadie, pp. 508–509</ref> However, his early successes faded when plans to stage the remainder of the ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen|Ring]]'' cycle and other German operas were frustrated by a renascent conservative faction which favoured a more traditional "Hungarian" programme.<ref name=Sadie509 /> In search of non-German operas to extend the repertory, Mahler visited in spring 1890 Italy where among the works he discovered was Mascagni's recent sensation {{lang|it|[[Cavalleria rusticana]]}} (Budapest premiere on 26 December 1890).<ref name=Franklin5 />

On 18 February 1889, Bernhard Mahler died; this was followed later in the year by the deaths both of Mahler's sister Leopoldine (27 September) and his mother (11 October).<ref name=Franklin5 /> From October 1889 Mahler took charge of his four younger brothers and sisters (Alois, Otto, Justine, and Emma). They were installed in a rented flat in Vienna. Mahler himself suffered poor health, with attacks of [[haemorrhoids]] and [[migraine]] and a recurrent septic throat.<ref>Carr, p. 52</ref> Shortly after these family and health setbacks the premiere of the First Symphony, in Budapest on 20 November 1889, was a disappointment. The critic August Beer's lengthy newspaper review indicates that enthusiasm after the early movements degenerated into "audible opposition" after the Finale.<ref>Mitchell, Vol. II, p. 154</ref> Mahler was particularly distressed by the negative comments from his Vienna Conservatory contemporary, [[Victor von Herzfeld|Viktor von Herzfeld]], who had remarked that Mahler, like many conductors before him, had proved not to be a composer.<ref name=Franklin5 /><ref>Carr, {{pp.|53|54}}</ref>

In 1891, Hungary's move to the political right was reflected in the opera house when Beniczky on 1 February was replaced as intendant by Count [[Géza Zichy]], a conservative aristocrat determined to assume artistic control over Mahler's head.<ref name=Franklin5 /> However, Mahler had foreseen that and had secretly been negotiating with [[Bernhard Pollini]], the director of the [[Hamburg State Opera|Stadttheater Hamburg]] since summer and autumn of 1890, and a contract was finally signed in secrecy on 15 January 1891. Mahler more or less "forced" himself to be sacked from his Budapest post, and he succeeded on 14 March 1891. By his departure he received a large sum of indemnity.<ref>Carr, p. 56</ref> One of his final Budapest triumphs was a performance of Mozart's {{lang|it|[[Don Giovanni]]}} (16 September 1890) which won him praise from [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]], who was present at the performances on 16 December 1890.<ref>Blaukopf, p. 83</ref> During his Budapest years Mahler's compositional output had been limited to a few songs from the {{lang|de|Wunderhorn}} song settings that became Volumes&nbsp;II and III of {{lang|de|Lieder und Gesänge}}, and amendments to the First Symphony.<ref name=Sadie509 />

====Stadttheater Hamburg====
[[File:Mahlers Komponierhäuschen.jpg|thumb|alt=A small lakeside building showing a single window in a white wall below a sloping red roof|{{Language with name/for|de|Komponierhäuschen|composition hut|links=no}} in [[Steinbach am Attersee]], where Mahler composed in the summer from 1893]]
Mahler's Hamburg post was as chief conductor, subordinate to the director, Bernhard Pohl (known as Pollini) who retained overall artistic control. Pollini was prepared to give Mahler considerable leeway if the conductor could provide commercial as well as artistic success. This Mahler did in his first season, when he conducted Wagner's {{lang|de|[[Tristan und Isolde]]}} for the first time and gave acclaimed performances of the same composer's {{lang|de|[[Tannhäuser (opera)|Tannhäuser]]}} and {{lang|de|[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]}}.<ref name=Franklin6>Franklin, (6. Hamburg 1891–97).</ref> Another triumph was the German premiere of Tchaikovsky's ''[[Eugene Onegin (opera)|Eugene Onegin]]'', in the presence of the composer, who called Mahler's conducting "astounding", and later asserted in a letter that he believed Mahler was "positively a genius".<ref>Steen, p. 750</ref> Mahler's demanding rehearsal schedules led to predictable resentment from the singers and orchestra in whom, according to music writer Peter Franklin, the conductor "inspired hatred and respect in almost equal measure".<ref name=Franklin6 /> He found support, however, from [[Hans von Bülow]], who was in Hamburg as director of the city's subscription concerts. Bülow, who had spurned Mahler's approaches in Kassel, had come to admire the younger man's conducting style, and on Bülow's death in 1894 Mahler took over the direction of the concerts.<ref name=Sadie509 />
[[File:Hans von buelow.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt= A balding man with a pointed beard, in formal dress clothes and holding a cigar in his left hand|[[Hans von Bülow]], an admirer of Mahler's conducting]]

In the summer of 1892 Mahler took the Hamburg singers to London to participate in an eight-week season of German opera—his only visit to Britain. His conducting of ''Tristan'' enthralled the young composer [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]], who "staggered home in a daze and could not sleep for two nights."<ref>Carr, p. 59</ref> However, Mahler refused further such invitations as he was anxious to reserve his summers for composing.<ref name=Sadie509 /> In 1893 he acquired a retreat at [[Steinbach am Attersee|Steinbach]], on the banks of [[Attersee (lake)|Lake Attersee]] in Upper Austria, and established a pattern that persisted for the rest of his life; summers would henceforth be dedicated to composition, at Steinbach or its successor retreats. Now firmly under the influence of the {{lang|de|Wunderhorn}} folk-poem collection, Mahler produced a stream of song settings at Steinbach, and composed his Second and [[Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)|Third]] Symphonies there.<ref name=Franklin6 />

Performances of Mahler works were still comparatively rare (he had not composed very much). On 27 October 1893, at Hamburg's Konzerthaus Ludwig, Mahler conducted a revised version of his First Symphony; still in its original five-movement form, it was presented as a {{lang|de|Tondichtung}} ([[tone poem]]) under the descriptive name "Titan".<ref name=Franklin6 /><ref>Mitchell, Vol. II, p. 158</ref> This concert also introduced six recent {{lang|de|Wunderhorn}} settings. Mahler achieved his first relative success as a composer when the Second Symphony was well-received on its premiere in Berlin, under his own baton, on 13 December 1895. Mahler's conducting assistant [[Bruno Walter]], who was present, said that "one may date [Mahler's] rise to fame as a composer from that day."<ref>Blaukopf, p. 119</ref> That same year Mahler's private life had been disrupted by the suicide of his younger brother [[Otto Mahler|Otto]]<ref>Carr, p. 51</ref> on 6 February.

At the Stadttheater Mahler's repertory consisted of 66 operas of which 36 titles were new to him. During his six years in Hamburg, he conducted 744 performances, including the debuts of Verdi's ''[[Falstaff (opera)|Falstaff]]'', Humperdinck's ''[[Hansel and Gretel (opera)|Hänsel und Gretel]]'', and works by [[Bedřich Smetana|Smetana]].<ref name=Sadie509 /> However, he was forced to resign his post with the subscription concerts after poor financial returns and an ill-received interpretation of [[Gustav Mahler's orchestration of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9|his re-scored]] Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)|Ninth Symphony]].<ref name=Franklin6 /> Already at an early age Mahler had made it clear that his ultimate goal was an appointment in Vienna, and from 1895 onward was manoeuvring, with the help of influential friends, to secure the directorship of the Vienna Hofoper.<ref>Carr, pp. 81–82</ref> He overcame the bar that existed against the appointment of a Jew to this post by what may have been a pragmatic conversion to Catholicism in February 1897.<ref>Carr, pp. 83–84</ref> Despite this event, Mahler has been described as a lifelong agnostic.<ref>Allen Smith, pp. 76–77</ref>