The music of heartbreak
In 1910, Gustav Mahler was 50 years old and working on his tenth symphony. And he was a man with a broken heart, both literally and figuratively. He was diagnosed with an inflammation of the inner layer of the heart. He was madly, passionately in love with his wife, Alma. And he discovered she was having an affair. That heartache couldn't help but find its way into his symphony. Today, Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony in excerpts from Mahler's tenth from San Francisco.