Listening Guide Archives

Listening Guide – Blumine

Transcript In the original version of the first Symphony written in 1889, a movement that Mahler entitled Blumina, to follow ...

Transcript In its grand design, thematic content and conceptual framework, the first movement of the 10th is a worthy successor ...

Listening Guide – Movement 1: Allegro energico, ma non troppo

Transcript In this extensive first movement, which lasts nearly half an hour, Mahler presents the positive characteristics of his hero ...

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 ...

Listening Guide – Movement 1: Andante comodo

Transcript Typical of Mahler symphonies, the first movement presents a conflict between theme groups that function as antagonists, which builds ...

Listening Guide – Movement 1: Bedachtig-nicht eilen-recht gemachlich

Transcript The light-hearted effervescent atmosphere of the first movement recalls the music of Mozart and Haydn, while it's gently flowing ...

Listening Guide – Movement 1: Kraftig. Entschieden

Transcript In his most extensive orchestral movement, Mahler presents a conflict between life affirming and life negating forces in the ...

Listening Guide – Movement 1: Langsam, schleppend; Immer sehr gemachlich

Transcript Mahler opens the first movement by creating an atmosphere unique in his time for the beginning of a symphony ...

Listening Guide – Movement 1: Lied 1: Hymnus: Veni Creator Spiritus

Transcript In part one, Mahler sets a medieval latin hymn to music in one of his most directly expressive and ...

Listening Guide – Movement 1: Trauermarsch (Funeral March). In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt

Transcript The beginning of Symphony with a funeral march may well be considered typically malaria. Both the second and third ...

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 ...

Listening Guide – Movement 2: Im Temp eines gemächlichen Landlers. Etwas täppisch und sehr derb

Transcript In the second movement Mahler once again indulges his penchant for parody for the use of popular dance music ...

Listening Guide – Movement 2: In gemächlicher Bewegung

Transcript Mahler scherzo movement is as eerie and grotesque, as the first movement is lighthearted and parodistic. It features a ...

Listening Guide – Movement 2: Kraftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell

Transcript With the elimination of the Blumine Movement, a second fast movement follows the first. Mahler may have considered the ...

Listening Guide – Movement 2: Nachtmusik. Allegro moderato

Transcript Like the finale, the second movement is a puzzle to many critics, focusing upon Mahler's title for the movement ...

Listening Guide – Movement 2: Scherzo

Transcript It is obvious from the outset that the scherzo movement caricature is the march of the first movement. But ...

Listening Guide – Movement 2: Scherzo. Schnelle Viertel

Transcript Second movement we'll call scherzo one is one of Mahler's most original scherzo's, intended at first to be a ...

Listening Guide – Movement 2: Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz

Transcript The second movement is a violent reaction to the tragic nature of human destiny, expressed in the first movement ...

Listening Guide – Movement 2: Tempo di minuetto. Sehr massig

Transcript Mahler asks for a pause between the first and second movements, as he had done between the first two ...

Listening Guide – Movement 3: Andante Moderato

Transcript Judging by the atmosphere established at the beginning, it will appear that this movement achieves a perfect state of ...

Listening Guide – Movement 3: Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast

Transcript Taken together, the second and third movements are Mahler's most fascinating symphonic representations of nature. They come close to ...

Listening Guide – Movement 3: Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen

At the end of the Scherzo movement in the symphony original version, Mahler suggests a suitable pause before the next ...

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 ...

Listening Guide – Movement 3: Purgatorio. Allegretto moderato

Transcript The so called Purgatorio movement is the shortest of any of Mahler's, purely symphonic movements lasting little more than ...

Listening Guide – Movement 3: Ruhevoll (poco adagio)

Transcript Although this movement is by far the longest in the symphony, it is not the symphony's focal point, that ...

Listening Guide – Movement 3: Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell

Transcript What a shocking change of mood this scherzo moving brings in the wake of part one. Gone are its ...

Listening Guide – Movement 3: Scherzo. Schattenhaft

Transcript Scherzo's movement of the Seventh Symphony is Mahler's dance macabre, a ghost-like nightmarish fantasy that contrasts a spiderweb of ...

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 ...

Listening Guide – Movement 4: Adagietto. Sehr langsam

Transcript The adagietto is undoubtedly the single best-known piece of Mahler's music. Its popularity skyrocketed primarily as a result of ...

Listening Guide – Movement 4: Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zuruckhaltend

Transcript Having been subjected to the raging violence, manic fury and sneering mockery of the rondo burlesque, the human spirit ...

Listening Guide – Movement 4: Lied 1: Sehr langsam! Misterioso: O Mensch! gib Acht!

Transcript In the progression of life forms that Mahler sought to characterize in the Third Symphony, man stands midway between ...

Listening Guide – Movement 4: Lied: Das himmlische Leben (Sehr behaglich)

Transcript The idea of concluding a symphony with a song movement is most unusual, and may even be unique. Mahler ...

Listening Guide – Movement 4: Nachtmusik. Andante amoroso

Transcript The Fourth Movement and titled "Nachtmusik" as was the second, is everything implied by its principal temporal direction on ...

Listening Guide – Movement 4: Nachtmusik. Andante amoroso

Transcript The Fourth Movement and titled nacht musique as was the second, is everything implied by its principal temporal direction ...

Listening Guide – Movement 4: Scherzo. Allegro pesante. Nicht zu schnell

Transcript On the title page of the sketches for this movement, Mahler again poured out his grief: The Devil dances ...

Listening Guide – Movement 4: Sturmisch bewegt

Transcription Without a pause after the previous movement, that finale begins with an enormous explosion that ricochets off the first ...

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 ...

Listening Guide – Movement 5: Finale. Langsam, schwer

Transcript Mahler's last symphonic movement, he wrote one of his most beautiful themes, and some of his most stirring soul ...

Listening Guide – Movement 5: Lied 2: Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck: Bimm bamm. Es sungen drei Engel einen Sussen Gesang

Transcript The juxtaposition of a Christian poem with the words of the most notable anti Christian philosopher in western history, ...

Listening Guide – Movement 5: Rondo-Finale. Allegro – Allegro giocoso. Frisch

Transcript In the finale, Mahler attempts to resolve the conflicts and answer the existential questions presented in the proceeding movements, ...

Listening Guide – Movement 6: Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden

Transcript How could one conclude a symphony that has gone through so many different musical settings, expressing such a range ...

Listening Guide – Rondo-Burleske: Allegro assai. Sehr trotzig

Transcript In the third movement, as in so many of Mahler's scherzo's, his inner demon takes center stage, it has ...

Listening Guide – Symphony No. 1 Intro

Transcript For a first Mahler's Symphony is a remarkable achievement, the high level of musical sophistication and creativity is outstanding ...

Listening Guide – Symphony No. 10 Intro

Transcript One of the tragedies of Mahler's brilliant career as a composer is that he could not complete what might ...

Listening Guide – Symphony No. 4 Intro

Transcript The Fourth Symphony was conceived during and grew out of the creative process that produced the third. Therefore, it ...

Listening Guide – Symphony No. 5 Intro

Transcript With the Fifth Symphony, Mahler frankly admitted that he started over again although he returned to an extensive structural ...

Listening Guide – Symphony No. 6 Intro

Transcript The Sixth Symphony has long been considered Mahler's most personal expression of fatalism. The three hammer blows originally in ...

Listening Guide – Symphony No. 8 Intro

Transcript Mahler's Eighth Symphony is his most ambitious work. It reaches a level of complexity, a breadth of subject matter ...

Listening Guide – Symphony No. 9 Intro

Transcript With the Ninth Mahler returns to a purely orchestral Symphony, after having succeeded in integrating chorus and orchestra in ...

Listening Guide – Movement 1: Langsam (Adagio) – Allegro risoluto, ma non troppo

Transcript Mahler begins the Seventh Symphony with the first movement in classically oriented those substantially expanded sonata form. Radical harmonic ...