Listening Guide – Movement 5: “Aufersteh’n”. Im Tempo des Scherzos. Wild herausfahrend
Transcript What kind of finale could possibly do justice? Not only to the oil inspiring words of the text, but to the remarkable music that came before. Nothing less than the triumph of life over death is conceived here, finale is to provide an answer to the terrifying existential questions related in Mahler’s program notes […]
Listening Guide – Movement 4: “Urlicht”. Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht
Transcript Mahler inserted early, one of the original wonder horn songs, as both a brief Intermezzo between the scherzo in the finale and a vehicle by which to introduce the voice into the symphony, it can be compared with the old Freud of the bass solo Beethoven used to introduce the voice in his Ninth […]
Listening Guide – Movement 3: In ruhig fliessender Bewegung
Transcript Three particular aspects of the scherzo movement should be mentioned at the outset. First, Mahler uses one of his songs as a source, in this case, St. Anthony’s sermon to the fishes from this carbon window on second, Mahler anticipates the opening of the finale in an episode that erupts out of context during […]
Listening Guide – Movement 2: Andante moderato. Sehr gemächlich
Transcript The grace and delicacy of the second movement seem Worlds Apart from the terrifying power and tragic character of the first Mahler noted in the score, that a pause of at least five minutes be taken between the two movements so that the extreme contrast and mood would not come upon the listener too […]
Listening Guide – Movement 1: Allegro maestoso: Mit durchaus ernstem und feierlichem Ausdruck
Transcript Mahler begins the first movement virtually in the same manner as he opened Der Spielmann from Das Klagende Lied with the forceful shutter of a tremolo strings that quickly softens and continues as harmonics support an atmospheric background for the principal theme of the exposition. In this Brucknerian device create a mysterious and suspenseful […]
Listening Guide – Symphony No. 2 Intro
Transcript Mahler wrote elaborate programs for this Symphony long after he had finished it. These programs are posted on our website. But the consistency of their scenarios and of the general tenor of their philosophical viewpoint indicates that they do not represent a revisionist afterthought unrelated to what the composer had in mind when he […]