Gustav Mahler, visionary and despot : portrait of a personality
Constantin FLOROS

With the terms "visionary" and "despot", the author seeks to circumdescribe the multilayered personality of Gustav Mahler. Opening up a terra incognita, he draws a comprehensive map of the various aspects of Mahler's inner biography : his unshakable belief in the "sacredness of musical art" and strongly developed sense of mission, his double life as conductor and composer, his inexorability and refusal to compreomise vis-à-vis himself and others, his discomfort with the world in which he lived, the complex facets of his psyche and his enormous energy potential. The result is the disclosure of new and unexpected connections between Mahler's personality and his oeuvre.