Mahler Symphony No. 3 - Intro - Listening Guide
Symphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1893 and 1896. It is his longest piece and is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire, with a typical performance lasting around ninety to o...
18 Mar 202115min
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
The symphony, particularly due to the extensive number of movements and their marked differences in character and construction, is a unique work. The opening movement, colossal in its conception (much...
18 Mar 202151min
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
In the tempo of a minuet. A major. Mahler dedicated the second movement to “the flowers on the meadow”. In contrast to the violent forces of the first movement, it starts as a graceful Menuet but also...
18 Mar 202119min
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide
The third movement, a scherzo, with alternating sections in 2/4 and 6/8 metre, quotes extensively from Mahler’s early song “Ablösung im Sommer” (Relief in Summer). In the trio section, a complete mood...
18 Mar 202151min
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
Very slowly, mysteriously. A minor. “Midnight song”. At this point, in the sparsely instrumentated fourth movement, we hear an alto solo singing a setting of Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Midnight Song” from...
18 Mar 202151min
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 5th Movement - Listening Guide
The cheerful fifth movement, “Es sungen drei Engel”, is one of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn songs, (whose text itself is loosely based on a 17th-century church hymn, which Paul Hindemithlater used i...
18 Mar 202151min
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 6th Movement - Listening Guide
Of the great finale, Bruno Walter wrote, “In the last movement, words are stilled—for what language can utter heavenly love more powerfully and forcefully than music itself? The Adagio, with its broad...
18 Mar 202151min
Mahler Symphony No. 4 - Intro - Listening Guide
The Symphony No. 4 in G major by Gustav Mahler was written in 1899 and 1900, though it incorporates a song originally written in 1892. The song, “Das himmlische Leben”, presents a child’s vision of He...
18 Mar 202116min
