“For conductors Mahler seems to be to be the most personal composer”

Do you remember the first time you heard the music of Gustav Mahler?

Gatti: I began at nine, ten to study music. And of course the names of the composers who were familiar to me were Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Rossini, Verdi – Mahler was totally unknown to me. Then I heard my father say ‘Mahler, Mahler – there is a symphony of Mahler on the radio’. And I said ‘But who is this composer?’. He said ‘It’s fantastic music, listen!’ I didn’t want to listen. Then, growing up, at twelve, thirteen, almost every evening he brought home a (very cheap) record. It was the whole repertoire, from Mozart to Stravinsky; he just wanted to introduce me to the orchestral sound. I remember he bought the 1st Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter, and so the first time I listened to the music of Mahler was with my father in our sitting room – at least 20 minutes of the 1st Symphony. And there I was, listening, without any particular emotion at that moment, but it was important that subconsciously I was absorbing his style.

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