Seth Monahan
Why would Gustav Mahler 1860-1911, modernist titan and so-called prophet of the New Music, commit himself time and again to the venerable sonata-allegro form of Mozart and Beethoven?
How could so gifted a symphonic storyteller be drawn to a framework that many have dismissed as antiquated and dramatically inert?
Mahler’s Symphonic Sonatas offers a striking new take on this old dilemma. Indeed, it poses these questions seriously for the first time.