Tehran gallery hosting exhibit on Austrian composer Gustav Mahler

TEHRAN,Feb.4(MNA) -- An exhibition of photos and biography of the late Romantic Austrian composer and conductor Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911) is currently underway at the Momayyez Gallery. On Tuesday,several artists and officials attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition, which is being held at the Iranian Artists Forum. At the ceremony, the Austrian ambassador to Tehran Thomas M. Buchsbaum expressed his happiness over holding such an exhibition at the gallery saying that it is a good opportunity for introducing Mahler in Iran. “Under new management, we have tried our best to increase our cooperation with other countries. The forum hosted a Japanese cultural week recently… and we are happy to expand relations,” the head of the forum Majid Sarsangi mentioned. He also welcomed the Austrian ambassador at the exhibition and expressed his happiness over further cooperation with other artists from that country. Afterward, university professor Mehrdad Pakbaz made a brief speech on Mahler’s career for the audience saying that Mahler included Romanticism and modernity in his works. He said that one cannot consider Mahler’s compositions mere subconscious creations, since it is obvious by the contrasts within them that he had a strong element of religious philosophy in his works but was also strongly influenced by Nietzsche as well. Gustav Mahler was one of the leading conductor of his generation. As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, but his own music gained wide popularity only after a period of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945, the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners. Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.