Mahler

Jean Paul's novel `Titan', in which an artistically gifted young man, driven by his failure to find his way in society, eventually commits suicide in despair, inspired Gustav Mahler to compose his `Symphony No. 1'. The work did not come easily to Mahler: he composed it between 1887 and 1888 when he, in his twenties, was working as a conductor at the Oper Leipzig. The first version of the work was considered as a symphonic poem in two parts, as its titles told a specific musical story.