July 7

July 7 is the birthdate of Gustav Mahler, composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. His music is among the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers. … The fourth movement, adagietto, of the Fifth Symphony (1901-02) is perhaps Mahler's most famous single piece of music and the most frequently performed extract. It was famously used in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film “Death in Venice” (in which Aschenbach is a stand-in for Mahler himself). Mahler wrote the adagietto as a love song to his wife, Alma. Hearing the Fifth has been described as a “transforming experience.”