Hotel Modrá hvězda
(today the Czech National Bank)

“It’s incredibly noisy at the hotel and in the city. I even had to take the adjacent room to avoid being awakened four or five times a night by a snoring neighbour (he’s finally departing today)”, Mahler complains in September 1908 in a letter to his wife.

This was not the first time he was spending the night at the address Na Příkopě 28. The present-day headquarters of the Czech National Bank were built on the former site of the luxury hotel U Modré hvězdy, which was in operation until 1926. It was torn down in 1931 and replace by a new structure, at that time the home of the bank Živnobanka. The hotel was just crawling with stars. Besides Frédéric Chopin, who is commemorated by a plaque, guests at the hotel included Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, and Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky.

What might Mahler, nervous about the upcoming premiere of his Seventh Symphony, have dreamed about as he made up for lost sleep after the snorer’s departure? Perhaps, in his relief, he dreamed of the childlike vision of heavenly life from his Fourth Symphony…