gustav mahler house

As part of a recent European trip, I took time to (finally!) see many of the sites important to the understanding of Gustav Mahler's music. This house in the Bohemian regional center of Jihlava is one of these sites.Keeping in mind that Gustav Mahler sold this house over 100 years ago after the death of his parents, it is commendable that the government in Jihlava has seen to keep it active with exhibits. Clearly much of this area has grown substantially in the last 100 years, but the exhibits in the house give you a good idea of what the area was like when Mahler grew up there.

The museum is just on the edge of the main town square and takes about 10-15 mins to walk from the bus station. Having called up the previous day, we had arranged an english tour guide. On our arrival, the lady at reception very apologetically informed us that the tour guide was away. However, she provided us with an audio guide free of charge which contained 9 different tracks in English. I personally was quite disappointed with the museum because firstly, there were very few authentic artefacts. Even the documents behind glass were clearly photocopies. Second, the information in the museum relates mostly to Mahler's years of his life in which he resided in the house. I was very disappointed that hardly anything in the museum related to his music or musical composition. I understand that Mahler's musical history is probably more appropriately provided in his composition huts in Austria, however I was still disappointed at the lack of musical content. I did however learn some knowledge about Mahler's family life that I did not previously know. However, on the whole I would unfortunately not recommend this museum to others.