Product Review

For the Love of Mahler takes us into the passionate world of Henry-Louis de La Grange, a charismatic 91-year-old music historian who, since first hearing a Mahler symphony in 1945, devoted the rest of his life to researching every detail of the composer s biography. After meeting Mahler's widow Alma in 1952, his deepening friendships with Gustav and Alma s daughter Anna, and granddaughter Marina, made him a virtual member of the family.
The film joins Henry-Louis on his annual migration from Marrakech to Paris and to the Italian Alps, while he busily works on revising his epic four-volume biography of Gustav Mahler. How Mahler s music inspired his life, and how Henry-Louis channeled an obsession into a lifetime of groundbreaking discoveries, famous friendships and award-winning accomplishments, demonstrates the remarkable power of music to change lives. Includes commentary by Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph Eschenbach, Thomas Hampson, Marina Mahler (the composer s granddaughter), and others.