Editing Gustav Mahler (section)

===Last years, 1908–1911===

====New York====
[[File:Metropolitan opera 1905.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A tall, imposing stone building in an almost empty city street with tramcar passing. A tower in the background is the only other highrise building.|[[Metropolitan Opera House (39th Street)]] in New York, at around the time of Mahler's conductorship (1908–09)]]
Mahler made his New York debut at the [[Metropolitan Opera]] on 1 January 1908, when he conducted Wagner's {{lang|de|Tristan und Isolde}}.<ref name=Franklin8 /> In a busy first season Mahler's performances were widely praised, especially his ''Fidelio'' on 20 March 1908, in which he insisted on using replicas that were at the time being made of Alfred Roller's Vienna sets.<ref>Carr, p. 163</ref> On his return to Austria for the summer of 1908, Mahler established himself in the third and last of his composing studios, in the pine forests close to [[Toblach]] in [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]]. Here, using a text by [[Hans Bethge (poet)|Hans Bethge]] based on ancient Chinese poems, he composed {{lang|de|[[Das Lied von der Erde]]}} ("The Song of the Earth").<ref name=Franklin8 /> Despite the symphonic nature of the work, Mahler refused to number it, hoping thereby to escape the [[curse of the ninth|"curse of the Ninth Symphony"]] that he believed had affected fellow-composers Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner.<ref name="Sadie512" /> On 19 September 1908 the premiere of the [[Symphony No. 7 (Mahler)|Seventh Symphony]], in Prague, was deemed by Alma Mahler a critical rather than a popular success.<ref>A Mahler, p. 143</ref>

[[File:Auguste Rodin - Gustav Mahler (1909).jpg|thumb|upright|Bronze bust of Mahler by [[Auguste Rodin]], 1909]]
For its 1908–09 season the Metropolitan management brought in the Italian conductor [[Arturo Toscanini]] to share duties with Mahler, who made only 19&nbsp;appearances in the entire season. One of these was a much-praised performance of Smetana's ''[[The Bartered Bride]]'' on 19 February 1909.<ref>Anon. 1909.</ref> In the early part of the season Mahler conducted three concerts with the [[New York Symphony Orchestra]].<ref>Anon. 1908.</ref> This renewed experience of orchestral conducting inspired him to resign his position with the opera house and accept the conductorship of the re-formed [[New York Philharmonic]]. He continued to make occasional guest appearances at the Met, his last performance being Tchaikovsky's ''[[The Queen of Spades (opera)|The Queen of Spades]]'' on 5 March 1910.<ref>Blaukopf, pp. 225–226</ref>

Back in Europe for the summer of 1909, Mahler worked on his [[Symphony No. 9 (Mahler)|Ninth Symphony]] and made a conducting tour of the Netherlands.<ref name=Franklin8 /> The 1909–10 New York Philharmonic season was long and taxing; Mahler rehearsed and conducted 46 concerts, but his programmes were often too demanding for popular tastes. His own First Symphony, given its American debut on 16 December 1909, was one of the pieces that failed with critics and public, and the season ended with heavy financial losses.<ref>Carr, pp. 172–173</ref> The highlight of Mahler's 1910 summer was the first performance of the Eighth Symphony at Munich on 12 September, the last of his works to be premiered in his lifetime. The occasion was a triumph—"easily Mahler's biggest lifetime success", according to Carr<ref name=Carr207>Carr, p. 207</ref>—but it was overshadowed by the composer's discovery, before the event, that Alma had begun an affair with the young architect [[Walter Gropius]]. Greatly distressed, Mahler sought advice from [[Sigmund Freud]], and appeared to gain some comfort from his meeting with the psychoanalyst. One of Freud's observations was that much damage had been done by Mahler's insisting that Alma give up her composing. Mahler accepted this, and started to positively encourage her to write music, even editing, orchestrating and promoting some of her works. Alma agreed to remain with Mahler, although the relationship with Gropius continued surreptitiously. In a gesture of love, Mahler dedicated his Eighth Symphony to her.<ref name=Sadie510 /><ref name=Franklin8 />

====Illness and death====
[[File:Grinzinger Friedhof - Gustav Mahler.jpg|thumb|alt= A tall stone column bearing the words "Gustav Mahler", surrounded by a low green hedge, with a floral bloom in the foreground|Mahler's grave in the Grinzing cemetery, Vienna]]
In spite of the emotional distractions, during the summer of 1910 Mahler worked on his [[Symphony No. 10 (Mahler)|Tenth Symphony]], completing the Adagio and drafting four more movements.<ref>Blaukopf, p. 254</ref><ref>Cooke, pp. 118–119</ref> He and Alma returned to New York in late October 1910,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gustav-mahler.eu/index.php/perioden/52-1908-1911-metropolitan-opera-house-new-york/270-1910|title=Chronology – Year 1910|author=Bert van der Waal van Dijk|website=gustav-mahler.eu|access-date=3 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107004124/https://www.gustav-mahler.eu/index.php/perioden/52-1908-1911-metropolitan-opera-house-new-york/270-1910|archive-date=7 November 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> where Mahler threw himself into a busy Philharmonic season of concerts and tours. Around Christmas 1910 he began suffering from a sore throat, which persisted. On 21 February 1911, with a temperature of 40&nbsp;°C (104&nbsp;°F), Mahler insisted on fulfilling an engagement at [[Carnegie Hall]], with a program of mainly new Italian music, including the world premiere of Busoni's {{lang|fr|[[Berceuse élégiaque]]}}. This was Mahler's last concert.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Philharmonic Concert – An Interesting Programme of Music Representing Italy |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1911-02-22/ed-1/seq-7/ |access-date=16 September 2013 |newspaper=The Sun |date=22 February 1911 |location=New York |page=7 |archive-date=3 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203091952/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1911-02-22/ed-1/seq-7/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Lebrecht, p. 217</ref><ref>Blaukopf, p. 233</ref> After weeks confined to bed he was diagnosed with [[infective endocarditis|bacterial endocarditis]], a disease to which people with defective heart valves were particularly prone and which could be fatal. Mahler did not give up hope; he talked of resuming the concert season, and took a keen interest when one of Alma's compositions was sung at a public recital by the soprano [[Frances Alda]], on 3 March.<ref>Carr, p. 214</ref> On 8 April the Mahler family and a permanent nurse left New York on board [[USS America (ID-3006)|SS ''Amerika'']] bound for Europe. They reached Paris ten days later, where Mahler entered a clinic at [[Neuilly-sur-Seine|Neuilly]], but there was no improvement; on 11 May he was taken by train to the Löw sanatorium in Vienna, where he developed pneumonia and slipped into a coma.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fischer|first1=Jens Malte|last2=Translated by Stewart Spencer|title=Gustav Mahler|date=April 2013|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-19411-1|page=683|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rnBj5mrK7moC&pg=PA680|access-date=18 November 2017|archive-date=15 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415173532/https://books.google.com/books?id=rnBj5mrK7moC&pg=PA680|url-status=live}}</ref> Hundreds had come to the sanitorium during this brief period to show their admiration for the great composer. After receiving treatments of [[radium]] to reduce swelling on his legs and morphine for his general ailments, he died on 18 May, aged 50.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fischer|first1=Jens Malte|last2=Translated by Stewart Spencer|title=Gustav Mahler|date=April 2013|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-19411-1|pages=684|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rnBj5mrK7moC&pg=PA680|access-date=18 November 2017|archive-date=15 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415173532/https://books.google.com/books?id=rnBj5mrK7moC&pg=PA680|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 22 May 1911 Mahler was buried in the {{ill|Grinzing cemetery|de|Grinzinger Friedhof}}, as he had requested, next to his daughter Maria. His tombstone was inscribed only with his name because "any who come to look for me will know who I was and the rest don't need to know."<ref>{{cite book |last=Mahler|first=Alma|title=Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters|page=197}}</ref> Alma, on doctors' orders, was absent, but among the mourners at a relatively pomp-free funeral were Arnold Schoenberg (whose wreath described Mahler as "the holy Gustav Mahler"), Bruno Walter, Alfred Roller, the Secessionist painter [[Gustav Klimt]], and representatives from many of the great European opera houses.<ref>Carr, pp. 2–3</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'', reporting Mahler's death, called him "one of the towering musical figures of his day", but discussed his symphonies mainly in terms of their duration, incidentally exaggerating the length of the Second Symphony to "two hours and forty minutes".<ref>Anon. 1911.</ref> In London, ''[[The Times]]'' obituary said his conducting was "more accomplished than that of any man save Richter", and that his symphonies were "undoubtedly interesting in their union of modern orchestral richness with a melodic simplicity that often approached banality", though it was too early to judge their ultimate worth.<ref>Mitchell, Vol. II, pp. 413–415</ref>

Alma Mahler survived her husband by more than 50&nbsp;years, dying in 1964. She married Walter Gropius in 1915, divorced him five years later, and married the writer [[Franz Werfel]] in 1929.<ref>Steen, pp. 764–765</ref> In 1940 she published a memoir of her years with Mahler, entitled ''Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters''. This account [[Alma Problem|was criticised]] by later biographers as incomplete, selective and self-serving, and for providing a distorted picture of Mahler's life.<ref>Carr, pp. 106–110, 114</ref>{{refn|The term "[[Alma Problem]]" has been used to refer to the difficulties that Alma's distortions have created for subsequent historians. Jonathan Carr writes: "[B]it by bit, more about Alma has emerged to cast still graver doubt on her published work&nbsp;... Letters from Mahler to her have come to light in a more complete form than she chose to reveal. It is now plain that Alma did not just make chance mistakes and see things 'through her own eyes.' She doctored the record."<ref>Carr, p. 106</ref>|group=n}} The composer's daughter [[Anna Mahler]] became a well-known sculptor; she died in 1988.<ref>Mitchell (''The Mahler Companion''), p. 580</ref> The International Gustav Mahler Society was founded in 1955 in Vienna, with Bruno Walter as its first president and Alma Mahler as an honorary member. The Society aims to create a complete critical edition of Mahler's works, and to commemorate all aspects of the composer's life.<ref>{{cite web |title=International Gustav Mahler Society, Vienna (Historical Notes: click on "The Society" and "History") |url=https://www.gustav-mahler.org/english/ |publisher=The International Gustav Mahler Society |access-date=4 April 2010 |archive-date=10 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100410075219/http://www.gustav-mahler.org/english/ |url-status=live }}</ref>