ABSTRACT
As a German-Bohemian in an Austrian musical landscape, Gustav Mahler's work in the fields of song and symphony would become a towering pinnacle in the development of Austrian music, and yet he never lost the attachment to his native country. Mahler returned to the tranquil landscape of his Moravian homeland in order to put the finishing touches to his most personal and perhaps most important work, the symphony for tenor, alto voice and large orchestra Das Lied von der Erde. A native of Lucenec, she came from a more affluent family than that of Bernhard Mahler, the pedlar's son, who ran a distillery in his home town of Kalischt. In an annotation to a letter of invitation from the young musician, Mahler's childhood friend, Fritz Lohr, who visited him in his parents' Iglau home in 1884, painted a lively picture of the Iglau landscape that found unmistakeable expression in Mahler's music.
