Henry-Louis de la Grange
Gustav Mahler, Volume 3: Vienna -- Triumph and Disillusion, 1904-1907.
Oxford University Press, 1995. First printing of revised and updated translation of the French edition published in 3 volumes (Fayard, c1979-c1984). 019315160X  xv/1000 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6.75" x 9.75", is bound in black cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book and dust jacket are like new.
"When the second volume of de La Grange's monumental study of Mahler appeared, it was hailed in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications as an indispensable portrait of the great composer. Here at last is the third volume of this magisterial work.
Ranging from 1904 to 1907, it explores Mahler's final years as administrator, producer, and conductor of the Vienna Opera. It was a time of intense inner struggle, with Mahler's energy and creative powers drained by the competing demands of running the Hofoper and struggling for recognition as a composer. And they were tragic years as well, especially 1907, Mahler's last year in Vienna, when the death of his daughter and the diagnosis of heart disease forced him to leave the Opera. Throughout the book, de La Grange offers true-to-life portraits of Mahler the human being, the family man, and the composer, and he weaves in innumerable testimonies and anecdotes that throw new light on the great composer's complex personality.
The product of forty years of research, here is the definitive study of a musical giant. It is, as The Wall Street Journal said of volume two, "a work of the first importance, one that nobody seriously interested in Mahler can possibly afford to skip."