Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Movement V) Movement V At Mahler’s funeral on 22nd May 1911, fellow composer and friend J.B. Fӧrster recalled that, although Mahler had requested no music to be played at the service, nature had its own ideas: “Only somewhere in a tree a bird sang Read more…
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Movement IV) Movement IV Although added very late in the compositional process, the fourth movement plays a key role in the dramaturgy of the symphony. After the riotous Scherzo, this movement calmly opens, not with the orchestra, but with a human voice. The movement is composed Read more…
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Movement III) Movement III Also composed in the summer of 1893, the third movement was originally labelled as the second movement, as it bears many similarities to Todtenfeier. This movement is the first of the symphony to take musical and literary inspiration from Mahler’s Des Read more…
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Movement II) Movement II Once Mahler had completed the Second Symphony, he became troubled as to where the Andante movement should be placed. Completed in the summer of 1893, the Andante was originally labelled as the third movement as Mahler initially felt that “the power of Read more…
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No.2 (Genesis & Movement I) Genesis In 1888, when Gustav Mahler began working on the first and second movements of his Second Symphony, he had completely immersed himself in paradoxical thoughts regarding death and mortality. Attempting to follow on from a narrative that figuratively and Read more…