For Gustav Mahler, there was nothing abstract or escapist about music. ’The symphony must be like the world, ’ he insisted. ’It must embrace everything.’ He lived up to that ideal spectacularly, creating works of such emotional range and imaginative power that each feels like a world in itself. Uniquely, Mahler made himself the prism through which that wealth of experience is refracted. This book follows Mahler’s development as man and composer, and sets out the experiences – the personal joys and sorrows as well as the broader cultural forces – that formed him, and made him one of the most widely loved and admired composers in the whole classical repertoire.