[T]his book is a serious and muchneeded intellectual examination of these two composers and the impact of literary, philosophical, and spiritual interests on their music.(Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism) Mahler and Strauss takes us on a journey that traverses the broader historical and cultural climate of German-speaking Europe at the turn of the twentieth century (with a brief excursion to America along the way). And throughout this journey we are offered a succession of fresh and imaginative readings of the source material that provide us with new ways of understanding the fundamental importance of a profoundly meaningful friendship between two remarkable musicians. (Nineteenth-Century Music Review) Thanks to Youmans's lucid style and easy mastery of often dense material, it works well, and the high aesthetic stakes involved are established early.(The Musical Times) A fascinating volume . . . It's also an impressive achievement in terms of its scholarship and casts a great deal of light on these two composers, both individually and together.(Grammophone) "Along the way, Mahler and Strauss in Dialogue tells a compelling story of the unexpected ways that their worlds overlapped. In so doing, it provides a model for comparative analysis that enriches our understanding of a relationship that indelibly shaped the musical world of their time and continues to fascinate us today."(German Studies Review) Mahler and Strauss is an important and engaging study that will speak volumes not just to admirers of two consummate artists, but to anyone interested in Austro-German culture around 1900 and its aftermath.(Austrian Studies)
