On Sunday morning, you can go “grinding” again

It is a very special place of power and where some of Gustav Mahler's most important works were created: the small house commissioned by the composer, completed in 1901, is like his lakeside villa. Here he spent the summer months from 1900 to 1907 in a kind of “splendid isolation,” as his wife Alma Mahler later described it. This is the location of, among others, his Symphonies No. 5, 6 and 7 and parts of the “Symphonies”. “Eighty” is written.

Since 1986, the house, which belongs to the Thun-Hohenstein family, has been managed by the city of Klagenfurt and is operated as a small museum where you can learn a lot about the composer, but also enjoy the atmosphere in the city center. forest. Or you can stop by for “Sunday meals”, those morning parties where you can combine enjoyment of music with a beautiful walk in the forest: “Some even come with a picnic basket,” says Manuela Krasnitzer. She runs the Composition House for the city and has once again put together a good program this year that aims to invite you to “recharge your batteries and take a pause”. Next Sunday begins with “a musical bouquet of flowers across time and space” (that's the slogan), placed by Barian Marianne Pope at the feet of not only all mothers.

Manuela Krasnitzer and Dieter Riese at the House of Composition

© Risi

And on Mahler's birthday on July 7, an exceptional young talent emerges: Mio Moser, born in 2009, has already won several competitions and will make his debut at Carnegie Hall in 2022. The son of a Carinthian woman living in New York will play works by Beethoven, Brahms and others, as well as Songs of Gustav Mahler, performed by mezzo-soprano Irina Otto. “We charge an entrance fee as an exception because we are bringing a piano to the Mairnig Forest,” says Manuela Krasnitzer. In addition to further concerts through October (including with VoiSix and bass-baritone Thomas Tatzl), there will also be an exhibition featuring previously unpublished photographs of the Anna Mahler Archvis in collaboration with the Mahler Forum for Music and Society. Artist Claudia Boss is creating a multi-part intervention about the house of authorship, which you can experience for yourself on June 15.

And if you want to follow in Mahler's footsteps in more detail: On the Water – In the Woods tours not only begin with Mahler's favorite breakfast (graham bread, butter, jam, coffee/tea), which he always had The cook brought to the composing house, but A boat trip on Lake Wörthersee also leads to its villa.