Liszt Dante Symphony

[Jonathan]

I'm sure I read somewhere that Mahler held Liszt in high regard and performed his monumentally difficult Scherzo und Marche in concert. Not sure where I read it though as I've not read any books on Mahler!

[eschiss1]

I have never read anywhere that he was -that- good a pianist...
 
Edit: I have no idea if Mahler conducted the Wagner Faust overture. The source I read ages ago claimed, based on research I am sure, that he never conducted the Liszt or -Schumann- Faust works.

[Alan Howe]

The question, though, is what music Mahler knew, not necessarily what he conducted.

[eschiss1]

Agreed. Some of his relatively recent biographers seem quite unnecessarily uncertain as to what he knew, even ("must have known", "I'm certain"...)

[semloh]

The biography by Jens Fischer (Gustav Mahler, Yale University Press, 2003, trans. 2011) mentions Liszt only in passing, and on p.474 declares that "Mahler was sceptical about the symphonic poem as a genre and had little time for Franz Liszt, who had created this particular genre and whom he dismissed as the manufacturer of works both 'specious and meretricious'."

This doesn't entail a wholesale dismissal of Liszt, or negate the possibility of his music being a powerful influence on Mahler, but I think it is interesting that Mahler rejected his conception of the 'symphonic poem'. Quite a surprise, to me at least.

[Alan Howe]

That is surprising, yes - especially since Mahler expanded the concept of the symphony to include programme elements and, of course, words. Mahler surely has more in common with Liszt's music than, say Brahms.
Shouldn't the Faust Symphony have suited Mahler down to the ground, choral/vocal ending and all?