Gustav Mahler and Alma Maria Schindler were married in . . . 1902. The bride was twenty-one and a half years old, her groom a few months short of forty-two. Apart from their substantial age difference, it seems to have been the very disparity of their intellectual and social backgrounds that drew them together. Mahler was attracted to Alma by her beauty, her alert mind and emotional intensity. Though aware that he possessed by far the broader outlook, he trusted in Alma’s ability and willingness to learn from him."—from the Introduction

"Once the stiffness of unfamiliarity has been softened by a few months of marriage, Mahler’s style of correspondence with Alma is generally simple, direct, and astonishingly down-to-earth. In a manner akin to that of his musical style, he spikes his language with witticisms and double-entendres, colloquialisms and quotations from librettos and classical works of literature."—from the Preface

This profusely illustrated collection of Gustav Mahler’s letters to his wife Alma is more comprehensive than any previous edition; it contains 350 letters, 188 of them until now unpublished. Since 1995, when the German edition of this book was first published, two events have served to expand its horizons: the publication in 1997 of the complete text of Alma’s early diaries, dating from January 1898 to March 1902, and the publication in 2003 of a catalogue of all Mahler letters acquired from the Moldenhauer Archives. With the aid of this new material, the editors were also able to revise the dates assigned to many of the letters. Commentaries and annotations throughout the book have been corrected and expanded annotations included. The editors’ introduction provides a biographical context for the correspondence that follows.

古斯塔夫·马勒，奥地利作曲家，指挥家。犹太人，出生于波希米亚。作为作曲家，一生创作了10部交响曲，与理查·施特劳斯、西贝柳斯一道，唱出了19世纪浪漫主义最后的挽歌。他的音乐直接影响了勋伯格、贝尔格和韦伯恩，也包括肖斯塔科维奇和布里顿。作为指挥家，他的成就在生前就已得到广泛认可，不但演出水平优异，还具有创新性。作为历史上最伟大的歌剧指挥家之一，对瓦格纳和莫扎特歌剧的诠释尤为突出。

曹利群，20世纪50年代生人。种过田，做过工，大学毕业后当编辑。主编过《爱乐》杂志，写过一些和古典音乐有关的文章。出版的书主要有：《缪斯的琴弦》、《永远的珍藏》、《历史旁的花园》、《五音不全》、《肖邦不住17号》。翻译有《梅纽因访谈录》、《歌剧——一种新的聆听方法》（合译）。

庄加逊，2007年毕业于上海交通大学外国文艺理论专业，获硕士学位。近年来为《爱乐》、《文景》、《现代音响技术》、《中国新闻周刊》等杂志撰写和翻译文章。曾参与编撰《外国传记鉴赏辞典》（上海辞书出版社，2009年版）。