Concerto by Giorgione (1478-1510). Engraving. A reproduction hung above Mahlers’ piano.

Bruno Walter (1876-1962): “I entered his room and immediately I saw Giorgione’s Concerto, which hung above the piano – a good reproduction. A picture had never appealed to me like this before. This ascetic with its raised gaze made me completely upset. For months it has eluded me that he was musician, I thought he was a monk who is gently awakened by friends from a religious ecstasy – and oddly enough this monk seemed to me to be a key to Mahler’s being.”