Directed by Hilan Warshaw
Overtone Films in association with Sveriges Television and Česká televize
A giant of Europe finds himself on the streets of Manhattan. Thousands of miles from the land where he experienced his triumphs and torments, he unexpectedly discovers a new world, all the while living under the shadow of impending death.
As both composer and conductor, Gustav Mahler was one of the most pivotal figures of late-nineteenth-century European music. But the final years of his life were largely spent in New York City. Here, among the bustle of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, he worked on his last symphonies, transformed New York’s musical life through his leadership of both the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera, and confronted the greatest emotional crisis of his life.
Weaving together performances, location footage, re-enactments and interviews with musical luminaries, Hilan Warshaw’s film Mahler in New York recreates the little-known Manhattan sojourn of this legendary European Jewish composer/conductor. Fleeing Viennese anti-Semitism and personal tragedy, Mahler revelled in the pluralism of New York, a place he referred to as a “spiritual home”; but there were further upheavals in store. After his death, in a world reeling from world wars, American composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein – in many ways Mahler’s spiritual heir- and others resurrected and popularized Mahler for a new world finally ready to understand him.
A deep dive into some of the greatest music ever created and a heartbreaking love story about two brilliant and incompatible spouses, Gustav and Alma Mahler, this film also reconsiders Mahler’s legacy to explore his message for today’s troubled world.
Interviewees include (in alphabetical order):
Jamie Bernstein, writer and filmmaker, and daughter Leonard Bernstein
Leon Botstein, President of Bard College, Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra
Barbara Haws, Archivist, New York Philharmonic
Joseph Horowitz, music critic and Mahler scholar
Marina Mahler, granddaughter of Gustav and Alma Mahler, President of the Mahler Foundation
Marilyn McCoy, Mahler scholar
Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinet, New York Philharmonic
Anne Midgette, music critic
Gianandrea Noseda, Music Director of the National Symphony Orchestra and Zurich Opera House
Abhijit Sengupta, Director of Artistic Planning, Carnegie Hall
Morten Solvik, Mahler scholar
Robert Spano, Music Director, Washington National Opera
Nathalie Stutzmann, Music Director, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra, former Music Director of the Vienna State Opera