MAHLER The Symphonies Chicago Symphony Orchestra Sir Georg SoltiGUSTAV MAHLER 1860-1911 ‘Symphonies 1-9 ‘Symphony No.1 ‘When Mahier began to write symphonies in the rmid-1880s the standard model was stil the Beethovenian one, its outstanding contemporary practitioners Brahms and Dvoiak. Compared ‘wath them, Mahler's approach was radically Unorthodox, and at fist he was uncertain ‘whether to use the name ‘symphony’ for the pieces he was wating. Thus the First Symphony ‘began its public life as a ‘Symphonic Poem in two parts’ when Mahler conducted its premiere in Budapest in 1889. It was not well recerved, ‘and for its next performance in Hamburg in 1893 ‘Mehler provided the following titles for the movernents, togather with a programme, which he hoped would help the audience understand his intentions: 1st Part. ‘From the Days of Youth’. Flower, Fruit- and Thorn-pieces. 1. ‘Spring without End (introduction and Allegro comodo. 2. 'Blumine’ (Andante! 3. ‘In full sail Scherzo} 2nd Part. ‘Commedia humana’ 4. “Aground’ (Funeral March ‘in the manner of Callot’, followed by 5. Dall Inferno’ (Allegro furioso), the sudden eruotion of a heart ‘wounded to the quick In addition, Mahler gave the work the overall tile of "Titan, a Tone-poem in symphonic form's after Jean Paul's Romentic novel Tan, with ‘whose introspective hero, Roquaivl, Mahier strongly identified. The subtitle ofthe first part Flower. Fru: and Thomn-peces. referred 10 another novel by Jean Paul i The Hemourg audience were enthusiastic, though the erties remained cautious. This warm public response may have encouraged Mahler to dispense with the titles and the programme, and to present the work simply as ‘Symphony in O ‘major. This he did fr the frst time ata concert he conducted in Berlin in 1896, which also Included the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the song-cycle out of which the symphony had, grown, and the premiere of the frst movement of the Second Symphony, in which Mahler had, a5 he told the critic Max Marschalk, borne the horo of his First Symphony to the grave. Unhappily for Mahler. the Fist Symphony wes on this occasion again received with incomprehension For the Berlin performance Mahler also decided to omit the second movement, “Blurne’. which, as he later explained to Bruno Walter, he had come to find ‘insufficiently ‘symphonic’ This omission was confirmed whenthe score was published in 1898. In the published score Mahler also enlarged the ‘orchestration, increasing the upper woodwind from threes to fours. and the horns from four to seven, with atleast three more suggested to reinforce the climactic theme of the finale — ‘where all the horn players are further instructed to stand up. Mahler wrote that the introduction to the first movernent ‘depicts Nature's awakening from the long sleep of winter’. Itis full of sounds that he remembered from childhood walks with his father in the forests around his home town of 'glau Wihlava) in Moravia: cuckoo-calls, distant trumpet signals from a barracks, the sound of the wind in the pine trees (the long-held A on string harmonics). The first movement's main theme emerges out of the cuckao-calls: Mahler took it from the second song of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, where the young man ‘walks through the fields on a bright spring morning, The morning walk over, there is a lengthy pause — a return to the music of the ‘introduction — where we can almost feel the heat of the midday sun. Dark thoughts intrude, ‘and tension builds up to an anguished climax, which is dissipated by the trumpet fanfares fom the introduction, now close-up and fortissimo, heralding a joyful return of the wayfarer’s tune. The second movement is an exuberant Landler, based on matenal from Mahler's early song "Hans und Grete’. Up to this point there had been little n the symphony to disturb ‘contemporary audiences, but the Funeral March was another matter. In his 1893 programme, Mahler felt obliged to explain this movement at length; it was, he said, inspired by a picture, well-known in Austria from children’s fairy-tale books, called ‘The Hunter's Funeral Procession’, In.which ‘the beasts of the forest accompany the dead hunter's coffin to the grave...with a band of Bohemian musicians in front.’ The march begins as a bizarre canon on the nursery tune ‘Bruder Martin’ (The German version of ‘Frere Jacques’), [ed by a muted solo double bass. As the canon dies down, the ‘Bohemian ‘musicians’ strike up with vilage-band music, familiar to Mahler from his childhood. A nostalgic trio, based on the final song of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, where the love-distraught young man sinks into oblivion beneath a linden tree, softens the mood'before the sinister canon returns. This strange, disturbing music was unlike anything that had been heard in a symphony before. The finale’s extreme agitation is 2 response 10 it: the first movement's journey is repeated, at a more intense level, and again with {an extended central interlude, until at length the ‘music battles through to a wudly trumphant conclusion. Itis a victory of life over death, the first of many in Mahler's symphonies. David Matthews ‘Symphony No.2 ‘Resurrection’ A work as gigantic in its scope and vision as inits instrumental and choral forces, Mahler's Second Symphony is also one of the most Impressive, most original creations ever to spring from the mind of man. So strongly organised ist, So much of a piece, that it gives the impression of having poured from Mahler's pen ina single creative impulse. Who would fever have dreamed that it was in fact the ‘outcome of long and painful effort, that six years passed between the first sketches of the: ‘opening movement and the finishing touches to the majestic Finale? In January 1888 Mahier had spent eighteen ‘months as assistant director of the Leipzig Opera, a period marked by unsuccessful rivalry ‘with an already famous colleague some years. his senior, Arthur Nikisch, AL the age of twenty- seven, Mahler stil had only one major score to his credit, the cantata Das klagende Lied, ‘completed in 1880. Since then he had had to ccurtal his creative impulse in deference to his ‘ume-consuming conducting schedule. When he set to work again, however, ust after completing Weber's posthumous opera Die are Pintos, and in the midst of the kind of stormy ‘and unhappy love affair which always stimulated him, ‘my pent-up emotions were so powerful that they burst forth like a gushing torrent...At one blow, all the floodgates were opened! ‘While he was composing his First Symphony he also sketched out the first movement of a "Symphony in C minor’ and called it Torenferer [FRites of the Dead! or ‘Funeral Ceremony’). One day, hard at work on this sombre funeral ‘march, he was gripped by a vision of himself stietched out on a bier, surrounded by the ‘lowers and garlands heaped on him after the ‘riumphal premiere of Die dei Pintos, Only the arrival of Marion von Weber, his current mistress, brought him back to reality. Just as he had borrowed the subtitle Titan’ {or the First Symphony from a novel by Jean Paul, so he almost certainly took the name of h ‘symphonic Allegro in C minor from the title of 3 translation of a long epic poem by the great Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, Dziady (Forafathers’). It had recently been translated into Getran by Mahler's boyhood tuend, the Galician writer Siegtrid Lipiner, who called Totenteer The Totenfeiey, finished in Prague in August 1888, remained on Mahier’s shell for several ‘years. He had by then been appointed director Of the Budapest Opera, where his immersion in practical and administrative pursuits kept him from composition. In 1891, now first conductor ‘at the Hamburg Opera, his performances aroused the enthusiastic admiration of one of the most illustriaus conductors of the age, Hans von Bulow. Convinced that this ‘Pope of German music’ — the daring modernist who had conducted the first performance of Tristan tund Isolde, who had intiaduced the orchestial works of Brahms and revealed the genius of the young Richard Strauss — would help him to get his own works performed, Mahler went to see him, arnving on the appointed October evening in 1891. But he had scarcely begun to playwhen Bulow made a face and covered his eats, When Mahler stopped playing, Bulow remarked: If what I've just heard is music, then I no longer understand anything about music!’. Later he went further: ‘As far as I'm concemed, compared to this Tristan is like a Haydn symphony’. This incident marked a complete break between Mahler's past and a future in ‘which he was going to have to find his own way alone, along a hazardous path that only the ‘obstinacy of genius would enable him to follow to the end. Two years later he got down to work again, retuming to his original idea of a ‘Symphony in C minor’ Ia Leipzig, while completing the Totenfeier, Mahler had already sketched out the two main themes of an Andante in A flat. The ‘short score of this movement, and then its ‘orchestration, were quickly finished in June 1893. Immediately afterwards Mahler set to work on a Scherzo {in tandem with his song Des Antonius von Padua Fischprediat, whose ‘musical substance is identical. The writing ‘went ahead at a dizzying pace, yet the composer grew increasingly feverish and ‘anxious with every passing day. although he hhad found, at Stembach am Attersee near Salzburg, @ summer retreat where he could ‘compose in peace, the summer was now drawing to a close, and so far he had found. neither the text nor the ideal thematic material for the Finale which was to crown the whole. Just when, therefore, did he decide to use his previously composed Urlicht, a song with piano ‘accompaniment from the folk-collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn? The answer appears to bbe sometime in 1894, when he definitely settled Con the idea of awarding the human voice a determining role in the Finale. "The way | was inspired for the Finale is deeply indicative of the essence of musical creation. Fora long time | hhad been considering the idea of introducing a Cchorus into the last moverent, and only the fear that this might be interpreted asa servile imitation of Beethoven made me hesitate so Jong. Then Bulow died, and | went to his funeral, The frame of mind in which I found myself and. the thoughts | devoted to the dead man were very much in the spiit of the work | ‘was then harbouring within me. All of a sudden the choir, accompanied by the organ, intoned Klopstock’s chorus Aufersteh'n. It was as i | had been struck by lightning, everything suddenly seemed erystal clear! Such is the illumination for which the creator waits, such is ‘sacred inspiration! After that, | had to create in ‘sound what | had just experienced. Nonetheless, i | had not already harboured the ‘work within me, how could | have experienced, this moment! Weren't thousands of other people with me in the church? That's how it always is with me, compose only when | truly ‘experience a thing, and | experience it only when | create!” This is how Mahler described the ongins of his immense Finale ina letter to the Berlin crite Arthur Seidl, three years after the Second ‘Symphony has been completed. He began to‘sketch out the first drat of the Finale on the very day described to Seidl, and devoted the following summer to the work of composition proper. He finished the composition at Steinbach in June 1895; the orchestration was ‘completed by 25 July twas Theodor Adomo, the great German philosopher of music, who originated the nation that Mahler's greatest triumphs were achieved in the realm of excess, in his disregard for the virtues preached by a reactionary bourgeois saciety: moderation and the striking of a happy medium. Mabier, according to Adorno, ‘broke music's contract vith this society and ‘created a major symphonic art at the very moment when such ‘an art had become impossible.’ Mahler's ‘monumental achievement amounted to a ‘violent attack on the private, conventional, bourgeois curtaiment of music, against the elegant miniature, against the sonorous vignettes of late Brahms or Debussy’ In the Second Symphony, Mahler's vision and his transmutation of it into Sound eannot fail to enthrall the unbiased listener. The Finale, though its overall form, or even the odd detail. is perhaps open to discussion, provides a towering close to one of the most ambitious creations 3 ‘composer has ever conceived and brought to fruition, Mahler himself realised what he had accomplished. In 1900 he told Natalie Bauer- Lechner: ‘I will probably almost never attain such heights or plumb such depths again, just {8s Ulysses was able to descend only once. 10 during his earthly fe into Tartarus. Only once or twice in a lifetime is it possible to create works. ‘on themes so stupendous. Beethioven in his Ninth, Goethe in Faust, Dante in the Divina Commedia. Without putting myself even remotely in the same class as these greatest of all, | am often astonished even now by what | accomplished that summer in Steinbach! Henry Louis de la Grange ‘Symphony No.3 Each of Mahler's symphonies, as well as presenting a purely mosical argument, attempts to define an attitude to Ife, Mahler was realy ‘one of the fst exstentaists, using his Compositions as a means of working out some kind of coherent Weltanschauung, several of his contemporaries were doing much the same in other fields, notably Dostoyevsky, a writer whom Mahior much admed. Maher's Symohonies show the develooment of his ‘Shlosophcl outlook: from ts beginnings in romantic nastalgia and an intense feeling for nature (Symphony No. 1) grows to incorporate Some of the doctrines of Christianity (Symphonies 2 and 4 and approaches panthers Symphony No.3). Amore worldly humanism takes over whether optimistic (No 5), tragic (No.6) or equivocal (No. 7). Then ‘comes the grand synthesis of Christianity and humanism inthe Eighth Symphony, before thedooth-haunted world of the last works, ‘composed ater Mahler's aiscovery of his fatal ness. m which anguish and biter protest are ‘oventualy resolved into poignant aeceptance {trough the transforming power of love ach symphony presents 8 fresh approach to tho exstental problem, but there s often a strong continuty between ane work and the next. As Mahler said ofthe fist movernent of fis Second Symphony’ ‘Its the hero of my O mayor symphony (No.1) whom I bear to the Gave there” The fst Symphony's hero had Seen a romantic dreamer, ove of nature and state high spints eventually prevaiing over the Temporary csilusionment of a fatled love aff Ithe one charted in the Lieder emnes fahrenden Gesellenl and a young man's growing consciousness ofthe work's dark side, In the hugely ambtious Second Symphony. he ‘embraces metaphysical Christan resurfection, though without judgement. Mahler could not ocopt a creator who could dispatch some of his ‘reation to permanent suffering i hel “Tis image of a universal striving towards redemption 's continued inthe Thi Symphony. ‘ihich presents a vision of the whole of reation 45 a great chain of anmate being, rom the lowest forms (the stones) to the highest (God rimsel) As he had done for his fist two symphonies, Mahler drow up a programme which like his two previous programmes, he later suppressed, fearing that hs audiences ‘ould vel too much on the pictorial images he "provided and ignore the music. His misgwings " are justifiable; yet not to give the programme here would seem unnecessary puritanical Several drafts of it exist: the one: quoted is from a letter to the critic Max ‘Marshalk dating from August 1896, shortly after ‘Mahler had completed the symphony. ‘A Summer Noonday's Dream ‘st section. Introduction: Pan awakes. No.1! Summer marches in (Bacchanalian cortege) 2nd section ‘What the flowers of the meadow tell No. Il: What the beasts of the forest tell me No. IV What man tells me: No. V. What the angels tell me No. Vi What love tells me No. Ik Originally the symphony was to have had seven movements, but Mahler took out the seventh, ‘What the child tells me’, a setting for soprano solo of the Wunderhorn folk-poem “The Heavenly life’. He realized the danger of over- inflating a work which even in its final state 1s the largest he ever wrote, with a first movement as long as the whole of Beethoven's Fifth ‘Symphony. The original seventh mavement later became the finale and focal point of the Fourth Symphony. this continues the Thid's preoccupation with images of the divine in the ‘natural world, which for Mahler culminated in the innocence of a child The Third Symphony's opening theme in D ‘minor for unison horns sets the scale of theWork: we might compare the horn opening of ‘nother expansive symphony, Schubert's Great C major, noticing the difference in effect between the sound of Schubert's two horns and Mahler's eight. The long introduction to the main ‘movernent is one of the most extraordinary passages in Mahler: as an evocation of primitive nature it rivals Srovinsky's The Rite of Spring, while here and elsewhere n the movement the stark juxtaposition of intimate sounds of nature and raucous brass band music anticipates Charles Ives. The first part ofthe introduction ‘was originally called ‘What the rocks and ‘mountains tell me." Bruno Welter relates how, arriving at Mahler's summer home at Steinbach am Attersee and gazing in awe at the Surrounding mountains, Mahler said ‘No need to look up there, I've already composed all that Pastoral music is heard in. contrast: then a stern summons on trombone. Pan having been roused from sleep. summer arrives to a ‘magnificent crescendoing merch; but ts climax 's interrupted, and we have to go through a stormy development section and formal recapitulation — the movement isa fay ‘orthodox sonata structure despite its size - before the final F major triumph. Mahler has been criticised for repeating his material at such length, in fact, considering the scale of the ‘movernent, the recapitulation is remarkably Concise, compressing the 368 bars of the exposition into 233. The second movement, a minuet with a scurrying trio which comes twice, is scored wath 12 ‘great delicacy and refinement for a reduced ‘orchestra vaithout trombones or tuba, and with the basses playing pizzicato, throughout. The ‘birds and beasts’ scherzo begins with a straight transcription of Mahler's Wunderhorn song, “Ablasung im Sommer’, about the death of the ‘cuckoo and her replacement in the summer hierarchy by the nightingale, There are two twos: the first is lively and boisterous; the ‘second could well be the ‘summer noonday's ‘dream’ of the original title: against a shimmering background of high violins, a posthorn plays a Jong, sentimental melody ‘as if from the far distance’. Both trios return in varied form: the osthorn trois lovingly drawn out, to be dismissed finally by the irruption of an E flat ‘minor chord, as if Pan himself had suddenly appeared. The last three movements are continuous and the fourth and sixth are in the ‘symphony’s true key of D major, which has not, been heard since the thwarted climax of the first movement's exposition. The fourth movement, a setting for solo alto of Nietasche's "Midnight Song’ from Also sprach Zarathustra, deals with ‘man; but man the solitary, in mystical ‘communion with nature, with only the cry of a ‘ord fon the oboe) sounding through the hushed ‘noctumal landscape, The fifth movement is ‘choral:_ women's voices sing the Wunderhorn oem ‘Three angels were singing’, while boys! voices imitate bells. In the middle section, the fourth movement's solo alto sings as a penitent sinner; the boys’ voices join with the women’s In granting absolution. As the bell sounds fadeaway, the violins, silent throughout this movement, begin the Adagio finale, its hymn like contemplative main theme recalling late Beethoven. The music very gradually gathers momentum and reaches the same tense climax {asin the first movement; but the coda re~ ‘establishes calm and the symphony ends in the stabilty of an enormously protracted D major cadence David Matthews ‘Symphony No.4 Mahler's Fourth was completed in 1900, three years after he had been appointed to the Vienna Court Opera. He conducted the first performance in Munich on 25 November 1901 ‘The Fourth is the simplest and least. overshadowed by dark thoughts of Mahler's symphonies. Its closely connected with the ‘movement that favoured a new simplicity of style — although not always expressing a simple subject — attired in a late-romantic ‘apparel (which is nonetheless never allowed, in Mahler's hands, to occlude the clarity of his expression). The work has as a central idea the expression of a child's view of heaven, a theme ‘which is expanded in the last movement by a setting of verses from Des Knaben Wunderhoin The Youth’s Magic Horn), an anthology of German folk-poems which had already provided inspiration for much of Mahler's music. The 13 Vision is naive in the extreme — the emphasis being on the quantities of food and drink which ‘abound in heaven — and yet is presented in so apt and charming a way that the desired effect is immediately created After a brief introduction in which the four flutes and jingle bells which Mahler included in the score feature prominently the first subject, ‘a graceful and lilting violin melody, is introduced. It creates the comfortable and unhurried atmosphere of good humour which is to prove the predominant mood of the whole symphony. The second group of themes is soon introduced ‘on the cellos: a pleasantly jocular subject is: heard in duet, first between oboe and bassoon, then upper and lower stings and soon. The bells usher ina repeat of the first subject, and ‘an extended development follows. The flutes Introduce a new theme which is to be heard in later movements, and this is worked up toa ‘climax marked by fanfare-ike trumpet calls, Bolls and flutes return and e recapitulation of the main theme, at frst disguised, 1s achieved at length. An expressive hom recitative makes way for a brief and jubilant coda The second movernent is in the form of a scherzo with a Landlerike tio. An introductory passage for solo horn makes way for the first Violin to whom is given the grotesque principal theme of this scherzo, Mabler instructs that the instrument is to be tuned a tone sharp and played ‘ike a fiddle’ implying a street musician's fiddle rather than an orchestral onel in order 10 divest it of all charm of sound, This device willbring to the minds of many the similar idea in Saint Sains’ Danse macabve — a resemblance \Wwhich is explained when one recalls that Mahler felerred to this movement as Freund Hein spielt auf [Death strikes up) The third movement begins with a beautiful and restful melady which 1s developed with increasing intnicacy and vigour in a set of variations, an ostinato bass plucked on the double-basses serving to link them tagether The tempo primo is resumed in the last variation, and there is then a wiolent outburst of the full orchestra; at this point Mahler transfers the double-bass part to the timpani and, with wonderful effect, the ostinato is crashed out on the drums with full force. The clamour gradually dies away and the movement ends pianissimo vath the unearthly sounds of violin harmanvcs, Supported by the flutes. In the final movement the soprano solo sings the child's announcement that she realy isin heaven, enjoying its gastronomic delights. The stanzas of the poem are separated by lively ‘orchestral interludes based on the opening of the frst movement, after the last of these, there is heard a new melody. a gentle danceike: tune which clearly relates to the references in the succeeding stanza to St Cecila and her heavenly musicians. After this last verse the movement slowly fades away to a peaceful close. Deryck Cooke 14 ‘Symphony No.5 Mahler's return to Vienna in 1897 also marked the beginning of a new penod in his composing lite. His early symphonies, highly unorthadox in ‘form and content, were strongly affected by the ‘dramatic or philosophical programmes that underlay them. and by the folk-poetic world of Des Knaben Wunderhorn. This romantic freedom of expression now gave way to a more abstract, more classical conception of the ‘symphony in the middle-period works, ‘Symphonies Nos. 5, 6 and 7. These pieces fepresent a conscious rapprochement with the Viennese symphonic tradition, to which Mahler —asa Viennese by adoption — had come to {eel a close kinship. With them he was to prove himself the true herr to Haydn and Mozart, to Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner. The new, sterner world of the Fifth Symphony Is evident in its opening funeral march, Here, death is no longer romanticised, as in the Fourth Symphony, but is an immediate and fearful event. In February 1901 Mahler had almost died from a violent haemorthage, this experience undoubtedly affected the content of the Fifth ‘Symphony, which he began afew months later. The lamenting second theme on the wolins 1s related both to the first song of the indertotenlieder and to the Wunderhom song ‘Der Tamboursg'sell’, the thoughts of a drummer ‘boy about to be executed: divorced fram its ‘omantic context, it becomes a meditation on the universal fact of death. Mahler's immediateaction, in the wild central trio, isto rise to a Ich of Tchalkovskian hysteria. A second, less foiny trio develops the lamenting material at nth up to a passionate climax marked lagend’, before the stifled close. The allagro second movement is a large-scale jevelopment of the first. Its opening paragraph aw on the music of the trios, while the }econd paragraph returns to the funeral march Jndin particular to the lament. Mahler had not ritten a movement lke this, with its violently jubjective tone and constantly fluctuating noods, since the finale of the First Symphony. /udway through the movement the music iddenly launches into a jaunty march and there ; a brief mament of A major triumph before itis wept aside. But the march returns, this time in D major, the key the symphony is aiming for, id surges into a jubilant chorale. Again, the Jiumph is premature: the chorale fades and the pening music returns to end the movement in pectral darkness — but the turning-point has een reached. Mahler asks for a long pause before the ‘cherzo, a huge D major movement, the first 10 fe composed. Itis an elaborate and exuberant biend of Landler and Viennese waltz. with an }obligato part for the frst horn, which as well as Jeading the dance has moments of nostalgic ‘ontemplation, This is one of Mahler's few Echerzo movements where there is no irony in he title. “There is nothing romantic or mystical bout i’ his friend Natalie Bauer-Lechner Jecords him as saying, ‘itis simply the 15 expression of incredible energy It is @ human ‘being in the ful light of day, in the prime of his lite" The Adagietto for strings and harp is so often heard out of context that one of its roles, a8 a ‘slow introduction to the Rondo-Finale, may be ‘overlooked. Its soulful main theme is ‘Yansformed in the second episode of the Rondo into a graceful alegro melody. At the beginning ff the Finale, the horn takes up the Adagietto's final note, A, and leads the music determinedly into D major, with a bassoon phrase that quotes from the Wunderhorn song 'Lob des hohen Verstandes’. It's as though Mabler is here reluctant to say farewell to the Wunderhorn ‘world, The Rando is one of the most breathtaking displays of contrapuntal technique in his work, the frut of his growing interest in and study of Bach. Three times the music boils, Up towards what one imagines to be its final climax, twice it subsides, but the third time the chorale from the second movernent bursts in, ‘this time not to be vanquished. David Matthews ‘Symphony No.6 The circumstances of Mahler's last years and the character of some of his music have given rise to a misleading and distorted view of him as the archetypal fin-de-siécle artist, obsessed with deathamish, uttering a lingering and mortadfarewell 1o the beauties of the world he was all set to leave. Its easy enough to see how this legend took shape after 1907, the year in which Mahler was forced to resign as director of the Vienna Opera, learned that his heart condition would restrict his ifestyle thereafter, and suffered a wounding bereavement by the death of his elder daughter Mana at the age of four. This triple blow was uncannily foreshadowed in the finale of the Sixth Symphony, completed some three years earlier, Of his ten symphonies, the Sixth is perhaps the most classical in design, mood and treatment of material. The organic relationship between themes is logical and close-knit. Itis the answer to thase who write of Mahler as an undisciplined composer, for though @ very large orchestra is used, its Used, as in the Eighth Symphony, with economy, as a means to an end and not for its own sake, Three of the ‘movements are in the same key, A minor. Many musicians today regard Mahler's Sixth as 2 ‘coping-stone of modern orchestral music. Yet it ‘was not performed in the United States unt Mitropoulos conducted it in New York in December 1947, forty-two years after it was completed, and it was not heard by British listeners unt the same month, when a recording of a Hamburg performance was broadeast. No British orchestra played it until 1950 The symphony was watten at Maiernigg, on the Worthersee, Carinthia, where Mahler and Alma, with their two children, spent summer 16 holidays at their chalet. Two movements were composed in 1903, and the last two were completed in short score on 9 September 1904 ‘Orchestration was finished in May 1905 and work was thereafter continually boing revised. Mahler's ife was outwardly happy in the seren and cloudless summer of 1904, Yet it was at this time that he wrote the last two of his Kindertotenlieder. (Songs on the Death of Children] and the tagic finale of this symphony Much has been made of the prophetic, premonitory aspect of this work, particularly 1 three hammer-biows in the finale, the three blows af fate of which the last proves to be fatal. Mahler became so agitated by his superstitious fear of the prophetic nature of thi movernent that he deleted the third blow (bar 783), leaving a rather anaemic version of a climactic movement (some conductors restore it, a8 on the present recording}. When it was first performed, in Essen on 27 May 1906, ‘Mahler was in an emational state about the ‘work as a whole and particularly about the finale. This was probably because he set considerable store by the opinion of Richard Strauss, who had expressed the opinion thet t symphony was overscored (Mahler later revise the orchestration). Alma Mahler's remarks. ‘about the symphany in her memoirs are the result of hindsight and should be treated with Caution. The Sixth ends in tragedy but the fist three movements and rmuch of the finale are by no means tragic — and whatever superstitions Mahler entertaned when he conducted the», they had not prevented him composing ainly joyous and optimistic Seventh bnphony in 1904-05, he symphony gains it organic unity from a iple, even primitive, leitmotiv which appears ail movements except the Andante and may taken to fepresent Fate, usually sounding out \ the trumpets and oboes. The remorseless nature of the music is Jphasised by the fact that the entire smphony isin 4/4 time with the exception of he Scherzo and four bars of the Andante, The /st movement opens with the march rhythms Ihe basses and the emphatic sixnote figure J the violins which is the first subject, followed } an angular and assertive theme. The confident nature of the opening | the tragic and fatalistie Sith Symphony. jeventh is, by contrast, optimistic, amorous 4, at the end, sunlit with gaiety. it contains, of vse, grotesque and disturbing episodes — fs the sinister noctumal Scherzo — but for ‘of its length its music in which human uence, charm and humour are celebrated trom being ‘cranky’, as has been suggested, ‘ould describe the Seventh as one of Mahler's ‘ost accessible works, a companion in this spect to the Fourth and Fifth During his summer holiday at Maiernigg in Jo04, Mahler sketched two serenade-ike ‘ovements which he called Night Music Nachtmusik). The second of these — the indante amoroso of the Seventh — contains a p working of a theme from his Sixth Symphony. 'f that great work would not let him rest. He ‘pleted the Seventh Symphony during the ‘summer of 1905. At first, after the long rnter and summer conducting and directing the onna Opera, during which time he did no ‘ative work, he found it difficult to settle to smposition. Then, when he was being owed ‘3s a Tyrolean lake, the thythm of the oars: agested to him the introduction of the first ovement. month later he had completed pe frst, thud and fifth movements; he scored od revised the whole symphony during 1905- 1008, But the work was not performed until 19 jeptember 1908 when Mahler conducted it at a Fague festival to celebrate the 60th anniversary | Emperor Franz Joset's accession. Mahler as allocated twenty-four rehearsals, but after 19 ‘many of them he took the parts back to his hotel and altered, re-touched and corrected them The players were bewildered by the symphony and the audience received it with puzzled fespect. But made a deep impression on some of the young musicians who were there, among them Otto Klemperer, Artur Bodanzky, Alban Berg and Ossip Gabnlovich, Mahler Conducted the Seventh again in Munich few ‘weeks later and he also conducted three performances in Holland in 1909. The first English performance was conducted by Sir Henry Wood in 1913, the first American by Frederick Stock in Chicago in 1921 The symphony is scored for a very large ‘orchestra: 2 piccolos, 4 flutes, 3 oboes, cor anglais, E flat clarinet, 3 clarinets in A, bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, double bassoon, tenor horn in B flat, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, ‘tuba, various percussion, 2 harps, mandolin, ‘guitar and strings. Yet this array 1s rarely used in tutti Instead, Mahler revels in the possibilities it affords him for subtle combinations, rarefied tone-colours and the utmost clarity” the texture throughout 's wonderfully clear He was, insistent that the orchestra's first trumpet, first hom and tunpanist must be realy first-class to cope with the parts he had written for them, The rhythm suggested by those Tyrolean ‘oarsmen is heard as the introduction to the first ‘movernent and as the accompaniment to the: declamatory announcement of the first therne by the tenor horn. This is quickly followed by @ version of the oars rhythm for oboes andclarinets and by an equally forceful staccato trumpet theme. The tenor horn returns with the inital theme, after which horns and cellos launch the E minor Allegro section with a march theme which is excitingly developed, with [prominence for the rhythmic figure from the ‘opening bars. When the official second subject emerges, tis in C major, full of Viennese huances, and seductively scored. In the lengthy development, the E minor Allegro theme (March) is extensively explored in all ts aspects Another episode is dominated by the introductory thythmie phrase. An especially beautiful passage leads into the abbreviated ‘recapitulation. ‘The Nachtmusik is in C minor and recaptures, with wistful irony, the innocent attractions of the Wunderhorn works. It opens with homs calling ‘to each other and being emulated by woodwind, But this is merely the prelude to a slow march, fis theme (a variant of Mahler's Wunderhorn song ‘Revelge') quietly proclaimed by horns, There are two episodes: the first in A flat opens swith a flowing cello melody. When the theme Of the introduction retuins on horns, it is even ‘more lender. After the march has been heard ‘again, the introductory musics treated fantastically - is here that the Nachtmusik title 's justitied. The second episode is a haunting, eerie recollection of earlier themes and nocturnal fancies. As in the Sth Symphony, Mahler uses cowbells in this movement, adding ‘colour to the texture rather than as symbols of the solitude of youth 20 In the remarkable Scherzo everything is. shadowy or distorted, Mahler achieves this effect by the briliance of his scoring for soloist and for groups of instruments. Timpani begin movement, followed by horns and woodwind, Muted wiolins introduce the macabre waltz- theme which becomes a lamentation played flutes and oboes. A dolce theme for oboas establishes the trio sections calmer mood. When the first section retumns, itis with subterranean brass and ferocious pizzicat ‘which lash the music into a frenzied danse macabre. Alter the enticing first few bars of ‘Nachtmusik iffor sola violin with string ‘accompaniment, this serenade-ke movement marked Andante amoroso begins with a solo hom melody and a jocose rhythm for bassoon {and oboes. Violins also have an important theme, commented on by the horn, and the s violin quietly plays its version of a solo violin theme from the finale of the Sixth Symphony, ‘The mandolin is heard, adding a distinctive colour to the orchestration. Although the musi runs into a sudden squall, the return of the ‘mood of nocturnal romance is not long delaye This is one of Mahler's most beguiling movements, In the Rondo-Fmale the symphony emerges| into the light of common day — and C major. The last movement begins with a marvellous ‘expression of vigorous life-assertion by the ‘umpanist, echoed by the bassoons and horns ‘and with more of the orchestra jaining inanent later. The principal theme blazes forth, yor the trumpets and horns. Mehlers plan in this movement is to cambine felements of sonata-form and variation in eight /ndo episodes, each with its theme and ovation. Listeners will notice that one of the themes Sounds like a parody of the Masters theme in Wagner's Die Meistersinger and foother is ike a sly allusion to the famous waltz Jo Lehar’s The Merry Widow (a highly topical ore in 1908, the year the Widow was first performed with huge success}. References to earlier themies abound. After a lyrical and selicate variation, the Allegro theme from the ist movement returns and ts then combined with the prineipal material of the Rondo. "ercussion, including the cowbells and tubular bells, strings and brass again head the solemn, snd majestic procession of fantares which bring iis kaleidoscopic symphony to its triumphant lose in an expression of uninhibited joy. Michael Kennedy ‘Symphony No.8 The autobiographical element in Mahler's Eighth Symphony may be less obvious, but itis there all the same, and so is the influence of Bach. ‘Mahler completed it in August 1906; his letters show that some of it was written in March of ‘hat year, so the story that it was composed in 2 eight weeks is false. He told the Dutch ‘conductor Willem Mengelberg that it was the: biggest thing he had done so far. Itis the first completely choral symphony in the history of Imusic and is divided into two unequal parts, the: first a setting of the Latin words of the ninth century Whitsuntide vesper hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus, attibuted to Hrabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mainz, and the second a setting Of the closing scene of Part Il of Goethe's Faust If these seem widely disparate sources of inspiration, Mahler's purpose was to emphasise the link between the early expression of Christian belief in the pawer of the Spirit and Goethe's symbolic vision of mankind's. redemption through love. He also had in mind what he called ‘the misunderstood " Platonic love"; in a letter to his wife Alma (the work's dedicatee, to whom the symphony ona ‘personal level is a hymn of love) written while he was rehearsing the symphony in Munich in 1910 he explained The essence ofits really Goethe's idea that all love is generative, creative, and that there 's@ physical and spirtual generation which is the emanation of this ‘Eros’. You have it inthe last scene of Faust, presented symboliclly..The wonderful discussion between Diotima and Socrates...gives the core of Plato's thought, his whole outlook on the world...The comparison between {Socrates] and Christ is obvious and has arisen spontaneously in all ages...In each case Eros as Creator of the worldDiotima's discourse on love in Plato's ‘Symposium contains the following (in Shelley's transiation:) it follows thet we must desire immortality together with what is good, since Love is the desire that good be for ever present to us. Of necessity Love must also be the desire of immortality ‘The Eighth Symphony was not pertormed until 1910, the year of Mahler’s fiftieth birthday, by which time he had left the Vienna Opera and become conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Rehearsals began in May and June, conducted by Mahler, and the soloists ‘were chosen and rehearsed by Bruno Walter. ‘Two performances were scheduled for Munich, (on 12 September with a repeat the following day, in Hall 1 of the 1908 Munich Exhibition site ‘The manager of the Gutmann concert agency, in publicity beforehand, had described the work as the ‘Symphony of a Thousand! without the knowledge and much to the annoyance of ‘Mahler — although it was accurate in relation to the numbers involved in the fist performances, ‘Mahler had only eight months to live, and itis ‘moving to know that this occasion, the last time he was to conduct in Europe, was @ major ‘tnumph. The audience included not merely royalty but many of Europe's most distinguished artistic figures: Richard Strauss, Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowsk', Arnold Schoenberg, Willem Mengelberg, Anton Webern, Max Reinhardt, ‘Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig and many more, Walter has described how, at the end, with applause ringing round the hall, Mahler climbet to the top of the platform where the children’s chorus was stationed, cheering with all their might, and walked right along the row, shaki every hand that was held out to him. The forces required for performances of the Eighth Symphony are indeed huge: piccolo, 4 flutes, 4 oboes, cor anglais, 3 clarinets, E flat clarinet, bass ciarinet, 4 bassoons, double bassoon, 8 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, bass tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, gong, triangle, bells, lockenspiel, celesta, piano, harmonium, organ, 2 harps, mandolin, strings, double chorus, boys’ choir and 8 soloists — 3 sopranos, 2 contraltos, tenor, baritone and bass When this immense array is used together the sound is ike a tidal wave, but the predominant. Impression ts not of a mass of sound but of the precision of certain effects, the subtleties of colouring, the uncanny ear for balance and blend. The full brass strength is reserved for ‘emphasis at climactic moments. The inter-elationship of themes and particles of themes throughout the symphony is intricate and organic; and Part |, elaborate and massive a8 it's, 's a recognizable sonata-form structure is a marvellous polyphonic movernent — not that Mahler's counterpoint is ike Bach's, but it easy to discern why he felt so drawn to the {great contrapuntal master. An E flat chord on organ, woodwind and lower strings heralds the choir's mighty paean of Ver), and three important themes are heard in quick successio repeated chords in a dotted rhythm for the:povus on Spiritus, a trombone motive and a 1/09 phrase for the trumpets There is also an sive theme in B flat for the stings. The Jpovus at last sinks to a pianissimo and four sts are heard in a beautiful passage in D flat the Second subject proper — at the words nle superna gratia. The re-entry of the chorus yids t0 a return of the opening in elaborated ym, after which the orchestra begins the next ection va sombre D minor. At the words Jyforma nostn corporis, @ solo violin companies the chorus’ antiphony and the porns bring back the trombone motive pevelopment of this matenal by the cchestra and eight soloists leads to the Jement’s emotional climax, the supers fccende lumen sensibus to a theme which is 10 nture largely in Part li. Mahler interweaves fie three opening motives in a radiant E major, -dulating to the tonic for the return af the pening Veni, Creator Spiritus. & double fugue punches the coda and its crowning Gloria, Part Il takes us into @ mote familar Mahierian tle and world with its long orchestral ptroduction in € flat minor ilustrative of the wild pndscape in which Goethe has set the scene 01 Faust’s symbolic transhiguration. Two Jyemes dominate this section fand the whole ovement), one quiet like a prayer, the other, on ules and clarinets, a Mahlerian yearning notive. The choral entry ss soft, mysterious, hoing. With the entry of Pater Ecstaticus in E x, the sttings take up the two themes and lend them into one melody. The soloists, it should be noted. represent not so much characters as symbolic ideas in Goethe's private and often enigmatic mythology. With Pater Profundus the music returns to E flat minor with reappearance of the Accende theme from Part | on trumpets and horns and this is quoted in ful, in B major, as the Chorus of Angels sings. of Faust's salvation ('Gerettet ist das ede Gled'). The song of Doctor Mariarus, the ‘Younger Angels and Blessed Boys grows Increasingly rapturous as the Virgin is addressed, and the symphony’s final section begins with a ‘new theme (marked adagissimo and vibrando} {or violins above an E major chord on harps and harmonium, From now on, with the singing of three women soloists — Magna Peccatrix, Mulier Samaritana and Maria Aegyptiaca — the music becomes increasingly tender, notably ‘when a fourth soloist — Una Poenitentium, formerly Gretchen — pleads to be Faust's ‘guardian angel. Eventually, from high above the ‘orchestra and chorus, the Mater Gloriasa herself ‘sings, exquisitely accompanied by the most delicate orchestral colouring, and then Mahler ‘summons all his eloquence as Doctor Marianus, ‘echoed by the chorus, urges all penitents to look upwards to the redeeming gaze, The concluding Chorus Mysticus, beginning in a hushed whisper and ending in a mighty blaze of sound, sings of the Eternal-Feminine drawing, ‘mankind towards heaven. This passage is fomantic art at its most exalted. At the end, in an instrumental coda, Mahler brings back the Veni, Creator Spintus theme trom thesymphony’s opening, but with its rising seventh fexpandad to a ninth as the brass triumphantly affirm the faith in both man and God which lies at the root of this astonishing humanistic credo by one of the most truly religious composers lin no dogmatic sense} who has ever ved. ‘Michael Kennedy ‘Symphony No.9 ‘According to the definitive numbering, Mahler ‘composed nine symphonies, and the one on this recording is the last. But if we include The Song of the Earth (subtitled “A Symphony for Voices and Orchestra’) and the fullength draft of the Tenth, the complete tally, as Mahler's biographer Richard Specht pointed out as early as 1913, 1s, eleven, of which ‘No. 9's the last but one. But in fact, as has been mentioned, this total symphonic output resolves itself into three: tilogies — early, middle-period, and late — with the dark farewell” thiogy of the death-haunted last years, The Song of the Earth, No. 9 and No. 10. The reason why this last-period trilogy is so urgently concered with death is that in 1907, after having completed the ‘Symphony of a ‘Thousand’ as the titanic affirmation of a man in the prime of life, Mahler was told by his doctor that he was suffering from a fatal heart-disease. He was in fact to die only four years later, at the 24 age of fifty, without even having elaborated his fultlength draft of No, 10 into its final full ‘orchestral form. No. 9, completed in 1910, 2 year before his death, received its first performance in 1912, in Vienna, under Bruno Walter The work has for long been regarded as Mahler's desparing swansong; but since we have come to know the nature and character of No. 10, we can now understand No.9 more clearly as the central work in the last-period trilogy. Like its equivalents in the two earlier trilagies — the tormented death-and- resurrection No. 2, and the stoic death-without- resurrection No, 6 — it plunges into a darkness ‘which represents the spiritual nadir ofits period ‘but in this final trilogy, everything is on a much more desperate plane than before. The Ninth ‘Symphony marks Mahler's furthermast descent into the hall of emptiness that confronted him when he received the death-sentence from his doctor and found his hard-sought faith too. Insecure to exorcise the spectre of a swifthy- approaching premature extinction. The preceding Song of the Earth, unutterably poignant though its, evokes the shadow of death, and utters a farewell to life, in purely poetic terms; the succeeding Tenth, though too plumbs the depths, eventually ises above the fear of death, and the drama of leave-taking, toa calm and transfigured acceptance; but in the Ninth, death is real and omnipotent, and th farewell is a heartbroken one. This work is, in truth, Mahler's ‘derk night of the soul’, and itisthe more moving in that there is no easy wing to despa Through all the horror and hopelessness shines Mahler's unquenched bet in life: the symphony stands as a musical ‘equivalent of the poet Pike's ‘dennach preisen’ praising life nevertheless Musically speaking, the work stands between wo worlds, showing Mahler as both the most ‘ntensely romantic of the latesromantics and the ‘most prophetic of modern developments. There 's no paradox here: like all the romantics, he was interested in technical innovation not for its own ‘ake but for the sake of emotional expression. ust a8 Wagner's obsession with the 'sychological conflict in romantic love produced ‘he revolutionary chromaticism of Tristan, $0 ‘Mahler's own inner conflict produced the vreakdown of tonality which is pervasive in his xinth Symphony. In asserting his unquenched tality and praise of lie, he raised the: passionate, yearning element in the romantic. nusical language to its highest intensity, but at ‘he same time, in giving vent to the bitterness. ‘ond irony in his soul, he stepped up the tensions 1 the more anguished type of romantic ‘expressionism until it exploded into the: vissonance of our own time, The towering stature of the symphony, however, lies in its masterly farmal organisation, Lunfying the two seemingly contradictory styles; itis this which transforms a subjective personal document into an objective universal statement. But the work’s length (strictly proportionate to 1s profusion of material) and its complexity 25 \integral down to the last detail are suich that the following analysis can be no more than @ bare outline. The four movements follow an unusual sequence, ending with a slow movement, as in Tchaikovsky's ‘Pathétique’ and Haydn's, “Farewell! — which are also ‘valedictory’ works. In fact, the ‘Pathétique’ was probably Mahler's overall model, conscious or unconscious: in that work, as in the Ninth, the first movement is followed by a steady dance, 2 very fast march, and a very slow finale. Mahiers four movements also follow one of his favourite procedures, @ Use of ‘progressive tonality’ to emphasise the ‘overall emotional progression of the work: the first movement isin D major, but after the two Central movements, in C mayor and A minor, the: finale does not return to the bright key of D, but moves down a semitone into the darker key of D fiat, thereby emphasising the final moad of farewell. Each of the movements is constructed ‘on an individual pian of Mahler's own — a kind ‘of fusion of sonata and/or rondo form with vatiation form: various sections of material, alternate, each returning in varied form, and they are subtly interwoven, each taking in and varying elements of the others. So that where, in the following analysis, one speaks of a section returning, of of sections alternating, i 1s in this very special sense ‘The opening Andante comodo — a wide- ranging synthesis of sonata and rondo forms ‘which Is probably Mahler's greatest single achievement — is an alLout battle betweenthree strongly contrasted themes. But first, 8 brief atmospheric introduction (prophetic of Weber in ts sparseness of texture and. intanaible orchestration) sets forth four basic ideas: these are to permeate the movement, land two of them are to stnke devastatingly at focal points in the movement's structure. Never did a great symphony grow out of more reticent beginnings: the four ideas are @ halting rhythm like a faltering hear-beat, a knelt-ike belHfigure ‘on the harp, a sad phrase for muted horn, and a fluttering or palpitation on the violas. Then, ‘against this mysterious background, the second violins steal in with the movement's main theme, based on two nostalgic falling seconds. This D major violin theme is warm and. singing, redolent of the Austrian summer which had been for Mahler the constant setting of his life as a composer, itis filed with a deep, tender longing, which is too full of love of life to be called Weltschmerz. This is in fact the germinal theme of the whole symphony, and it has been pointed out that, whether consciously or ‘unconsciously on Mahler's part, a version of t which occurs later in the movernent is a slow and sad transformation of ane of the most ebullient of Johann Strauss's waltz-themes — entitled, significantly and ironically, Freut euch des Lebens (Enjoy Lie) ‘What is almost certainly intentional is that the ‘main theme's falling seconds refer to the “farewell figure of Beethoven's Les Adieux piano sonata, The reterence is made explicit later in the movement, when the phrase 26 becomes identical with Beethoven's, and undergoes the same kind of dissonant canonic treatment — though the dissonance is of cours ‘much more acute with Mahler The initial basis of the movement is a contli between the first D major theme and the second, jagged, upthrusting D minor theme, also for violins, which is set on its course by a sforzando trombone chord and rises to a high pitch of agitation. This second theme makes at first only a brief appearance, as a contrasting strain of the first theme: it soon works up to @ climax, which is surmounted by a broad trum fanfare, which, as can be heard, 1s a tragic transfomation of two nostalgic falling seconds of the main theme; and immediately the main theme takes over again, its falling seconds nc expanded into great downward-swooping nint of defiant joy, After this, the second theme emerges on ts ‘own, with a quickening of the tempo; it again reaches a desperate climax, but this time |ubiation is wrung out of torment as a new B fiat major theme of potent exultation enters th conflict. This therne, which acts as the true ‘second ‘subject’ of the sonata pattern, is clearly 2 vigorous transformation of the tragic trumpet fanfare and thus of the original nostalgic falling ‘seconds of the main theme. Its climactic entry. achieves something like @ triumph, and the ‘exposition ends boldly. Yet this ending sounds insecure, and indeed, itis immediately contradicted by.ominous, distorted references> the ideas of the introduction, wich now open ve development. The main theme emerges out these shadows (crossing the sonata pattern with a rondo one, a structural procedure which ‘ontinues throughout); but this time its ntertupted by agitated Allegro material based on the trumpet fanfare. Again there is a desperate limax, and again the exultant theme breaks through, but it goes over into a sudden collapse, followed by grotesque mutterings in the depths of the orchestra, The second theme now takes ver, but it soon disintegrates into extreme dissonance (this is the passage that includes the explicit reference to the theme of Beethoven's Les Adieux sonata), and again the main theme steals back hopefully out of the shadows, It soon gives way, however, to the exultant theme, «nd this now sweeps everything before it: t ‘gradually ises to a tremendous all-or-nothing climax on the trumpets, violins and high woodwind — the peak of the movement — only to go over into a second catastrophic collapse, wath the halting rhythm and the knelbike figure ringing out on trombone and timpani ike a vement of Mahler's own Third Symphony. Yet once again oeliof in life breaks through: at sst the pandemonium is stiled by a visionary :terlude in D majar, looking back to the key and ye near-serenity of the first movement's main heme. It's based on a simple diatonic ‘ansformation of the grimacing figure on the vumpet, which ennobles the phrase wath the Wagner tum’, and soon acquires @ supremely »eautiful foim on the violins, But the first group, after several unavailing attempts, sweeps this, vision out of existence, and ends the movement 1n the nifilistic mood in which it began, ‘As in Tchaikovsky's ‘Pathétique’ this swift thitd movement is equivalent to the normal rondo-finale, but the actual place and function of the finale is usurped by an Adagio, And in Mahler's Adagio-finale, the glimpse of peace amidst the inferno of the Rondo Burleske becomes reality. The movement transforms bitterness into acceptance and final serenity, ‘though in @ heart-broken mood of farewell. ‘The transformation is musical as wll as emotional the note of farewells stiuck immediately by the tonality of D flat major — a semitone lower than tthe D major of the first movement — but the main string theme, like a passionate hymn to the glory of if, is a gathering together of the threads of the whole symphony, in a new context of affirmation, ‘This theme begins by conclusively ratilying the first movement's roference to the theme of Beethoven's Les Adieux sonata, and thereby Sets right the travesties which have been made 29 of the nostalgic falling seconds in the two central mavements, Moreover, as a whole, the theme is a noble transformation of the crazy waltz-theme of the second movement, and in fuliling this function, it gves a restored dignity to the phrase with the ‘Wagner turn’, which is to permeate the movement. What the theme is Unable to get rid of is the disruptive modulatory sequence, which continually ties to undermine its tonality, but it surges forward all the time, Tiding the disruptions, and elways emerging with its tonality finally unscathed, For its second paragraph, this main string theme refashions the tragic fanfare of the first movernent 2s a kind of brave insistence on joy ‘out of the midst of suffering, The second group, extremely sparse in texture, combines a few wisps of disembodied theme. utterly empty of feeling — all passion spent But passion {the mam theme} breaks in again, alternating with the second group in a rando- pattern, and ever growing in intensity. It undergoes many transformations, cluding a quiet episode based on the visionary interlude of the Rondo Burleske and a heart-breaking climax fon the brass; but at last begins a siow, lingenng fade-out. It casts back, as it were, a Jong, steadfast valedictory look at life; the last long-drawn line of the violins refers, with great poignancy, to the imagined final dwelling of the dead children in Mahler's own Kindertotenleder — ‘auf jenen Hoh’n' — ‘upon those heights’ Deryck Cookeco2 ‘SINFONIE NR. 2 4. Satz Urlicht (Aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn) (0 Raschen rot! Der Mensch liegt in gr6fter Not! Der Mensch liegt in gro®ster Pein! Je lieber mécht ich im Himmel sein, Da kam ich auf einen breiten Weg, dda kam ein Engelein und wollt’ mich abweisen. ‘Ach nein! Ich lie8 mich nicht abweisen! Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott! Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben, wird leuchten mir bis an das ewig selig Leben! 5. Satz Auferstehung Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock/Gustav Mahler Auferstehn, ja auferstehn wirst du, ‘mein Staub, nach kurzer Rub’! ¥ Unsterblich Leben ‘urd, der dich nef, dir geben! Wieder aufzubiahn wirst du gesat! SYMPHONY NO.2 Fourth movement Primaeval Light (from The Youth’s Magic Horn) Oh rosebud red! Mans lot is of such extreme necessity, of such bitter pait | had far rather be in Heaven. | came upon a broad highway when a little angel appeared and tried to send me back, Ohno! | refused to be sent back! {1am from God and shall return to God! Dear, merciful God will give me a ite ight. to light my way to everlasting bliss! Fifth movement Resurrection (Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock/Gustay Mahler) You will ise again, yes rise again, my mortal dust, after a short repose, Eternal life will be granted to you by Him who has called you to Him! You are sown in order to blossom again.Der Herr der Erte geht und sammelt Garben uns ein, die starben! CO glaube, mein Herz, o glaube: Es gent dir nichts verlorent Dein ist, ja dein, was du gesehnt! Dein, was du geliebt, was du gestritten! glaube: Du wardst nicht umsonst geboren! Hast nicht umsonst gelebt, gelitten! ‘Was entstanden ist, das mu8 vergehen! ‘Was vergangen, auferstehen! Hor auf zu beben! Bereite dich zu lebent (© Schmerz! Du Alidurchdringer! Dirbin ich entrungen! 0 Tod! Du Allbezwinger! Nun bist du bezwungen! Mitt Flageln, die ich mir errungen, inheiBem Liebesstreben, ‘werd’ ich entschweben zum Licht, zu dem kein Aug’ gedrungent Stetben werd’ ich, um zu leben! ‘Auferstehn, ja auferstehn wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nut Was du geschlagen, 2u Gott wird es dich tragen! The Lord of the harvest goes forth and gathers us in sheaves when we have died Oh, believe, my heart, only believe: nothing s lost to you! All that you yearned for is yours, yes, yours, ‘yours, all that you loved and fought for Oh, believe: you were not born in vain! You did not live or suffer in vain! Al that is created must die All that has died must rise again. Fear no more. Prepare yours if. Prepare to live! Oh, Grief, al-pervading, | have escaped you! ‘Oh, Death, all-conquering, ‘now are you conquered, (Oh wings that | have won by the ardent labours of love, | shall soar aloft to that light ‘which no mortal eye has penetrated (On wings that I have won I shall soaraloft, etc I shall die so that | may live! You will ise again, yes rise again, my heart, ina tice. Your beating will suffice to carry you to God!D3 SINFONIE NR. 3 4. Satz (Friedrich Nietzsche — Also sprach Zarathustra) (© Mensch! Gib Acht! ‘Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht? "Ich schlief, ich schlief — ‘aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht: — Die Welt ist tief, Und tiefer als der Tag gedacht. Tef ist inr Wel —, Lust —tiefer noch als Herzeleid Weh spricht: Vergeh! Dosh all’ Lust will Ewigkeit —, = will tefe, tlefe Ewigkeit! 5, Satz (Aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn) Es sungen drei Engel einen sufen Gesang, mit Freuden es selig in dem Himmel klang. Sie jauchzten frohlich auch dabei: daB Pettus sei von Sunden fret! Und als der Herr Jesus zu Tische sa, mit seinen zwolf JUngern das Abendmabl a8, dda sprach der Herr Jesus: "Was stehst du denn. hier? Wenn ich dich anseh’, 50 weinest du mir!” SYMPHONY NO.3 Fourth movement (Friedrich Nietzsche — Also sprach Zarathustra) © Man! Take heed! ‘What says the deep midnight?'l slept, | slept —, from a deep dream I have awoken: — the world is deep, ‘and more deeply conceived than day. Deep is its pain — joy — deeper stil than heartache. Pain says. Die! Butall joy seeks eternity, seeks deep, deep eternity!" Fifth Movement {from The Youth’s Magic Horn) Three angels were singing a sweet song, in bissful joy i rang through heaven They shouted too for joy that Peter was set free from sin! ‘And as Lord Jesus sat at table, ‘and ate the evening meal with his twelve disciples, Lord Jesus said: Why do you stand here? ‘When I ook at you, you weep at me!“Und soll’ ich nicht weinen, du gutiger Gott? Ich hab’ dbertreten die zehn Gebot! Ich gehe und weine ja bittetich! ‘Ach komm und erbarme dich aber mich!” “Hast du denn dbertieten die zehen Gebot, 0 fall auf die Knie und bete zu Gott! Liebe nur Gott in alle Zeit! ‘So wirst du erlangen die himmlische Freud’ Die himmiische Freud! ist eine selige Stadt, die himmlische Freud’, die kein Ende mehr hat! Die himmlische Freude war Petro bereitt, durch Jesum und allen zur Seligkeit cpa ‘SINFONIE NR. 4 4. Satz | (Aus Des Knaben Wundernorn} Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden, tum tun wir das Irdische meiden Kein weltlich’ Getummel hort man nicht im Himmel! Lebt Alles in sanftester Rub’! ‘Wir fuhren ein englisches Leben! Sind dennoch ganz lustig daneben! Wir fuhren ein englisches Leben, ‘wir tanzen und springen, ‘wir hupfen und singen! 87 ‘And should | not weep, thou bounteous God? {have broken the ten commandments! | wander weeping bitterly! (Ocome and have mercy on me! If you have broken the ten commandments, ‘then fall on your knees and pray to God! Just love God forever! Thus you will gain heavenly joy. Heavenly joy is a blessed city. heavenly joy, that has no end! Heavenly joy was granted to Peter, through Jesus, and to all men for eternal bliss. SYMPHONY NO.4 Fourth movement {trom The Youth’s Magic Horn) We enjoy the heavenly pleasures, 0 we avoid all earthly things. No worldly clamour is heard in Heaven! Al live in gentle peace! We lead an angelic life, yet we are quite merry withal! We lead an angelic life, ‘we dance and leap, ‘we skip and sing!Sanct Peter im Himmel sieht zu! Johannes das Lammicin auslasser, ‘der Metzger Herades draut passet! Wir fahren ein gedulio’s, unschuldia’s, gedulaig', fin liebliches Lammioin zu Tod! Sanct Lucas den Ochsen tat schlachten ‘hn’ einig’s Bedenken und Achten, er Wein kost’ kein’ Heller im hurmmlschen Kelle die Engle, die backen das Brot Gut’ Krauter von allerhand Aten, die wachsen im himmiischen Garten! Gut’ Spargel, Fisolen lund was wir nur wollen! Ganze Schisseln voll sind uns bereit! Gut’ Apfel, gut’ Biin_und gut’ Trauben! Die Gartner, die Alles eriauben! ‘Willst Rehbock, wilist Hasen, auf offener Strassen Sie lauten herbei! Sollt ein Fasttag etwa kommen alle Fische gleich mit Freuden angeschworment Dort lauft schon Sanct Peter mit Netz und mit Kéder zum himmlischen Weiher hinein, Sanct Martha die Kochin muss sein! Kein Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, die uns'rer verglichen kann werden, Elftausend Jungfrauen Saint Peter in Heaven looks on! John lets the litte lamb loose, Herod the butcher lies in wait for it! We lead 2 meek, innocent, meek, sweet litle lamb to its death! Saint Luke slaughters the ox ‘without a thought or a care;the wine costs not a benny in the heavenly cellar, the angels bake the bread. Fine herbs of many kinds ‘grow in the heavenly garden! Fine asparagus, beans, ‘and whatever we want! Whole platefuls are prepared for us! Fine apples, fine pears and fine grapes — the gardeners let us have them all! Ifyou want venison or hare, down the open streets they come running! If there's a fast day, all the fish come happily swimming up! There Saint Peter comes running «with his net and his bait along into the heavenly pond. Saint Martha must be the e5ok! There is no music on earth that can be compared to ours, Eleven thousand virginsa 2u tanzen sich trauen! Sanet Ursula selbst dazu lacht! Kein Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, die uns'fer vergichen kann werden. Cacilia mit ihren Verwandten sind teffliche Hofmusikanten! Die englischen Stimmen ‘ecmuntern die Sinnen, dass Alles flr Freuden erwacht. cog ‘SINFONIE NR. 8 ERSTER TEIL Veni, Creator Spiritus Veri, Creator Spiritus, Mentes tuorum visita; Imple superna gratia, ‘Quae tu creasti pectora. Qui diceris Paraclitus, Altissimi, donum Det Fons vivus, ignis, caritas, Et spirtais unctio. Infirma nostri corporis, Virtute firmans perpeti ‘Accende lumen sensibus, Infunde amorem cordibus. 89 throw themselves into the dance! Saint Ursula herself laughs at the sight! There is no music on earth that can be compared to ours, Cecilia and her relations are splendid court musicians! The angelic voices cheer the senses, 50 all awakens to joy SYMPHONY NO.8 PART ONE. Come, Creator Spirit Come, Creator Spirit, visit our souls, fill them with grace, Thou, that didst create them. Thou, that art called Comforter, highest aift of God living fount, fire, love ‘and unction of the spirit — Endow our weak flesh swith perpetual strength, kindle our senses with ight, pour Thy love into our hearts.cD3 SINFONIE NR. 3 4. Satz (Friedrich Nietzsche — Also sprach Zarathustra) © Mensch! Gi Acht! Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht? “Ich schiie, ich schlief — aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht — Die Welt ist tif Und tiefer als der Tag gedacht. Tief ist ihr Weh —, Lust —tiefer noch als Herzeleid ‘Weh spricht: Vergeh! Doch ail” Lust will Ewigkeit —, —wil tefe, tiefe Ewigkert!” 5. Satz (Gus Des Knaben Wunderhorn) Es sungen drei Engel einen siifen Gesang, mit Freuden es selig in dem Himmel klang, Sie jauchzten frohlich auch dabei dda Petrus sei von Sunden frei! Und als der Herr Jesus zu Tische saB, mit seinen 2wolt Jungern das Abendmah a8, da sprach der Herr Jesus: "Was stehst du denn hier? ‘Wenn ich dich anseh’, so weinest du mir!” SYMPHONY NO.3 Fourth movement (Friedrich Nietzsche — Also sprach Zarathustra) © Man! Take heed! ‘What says the deep midnight?" slept, | slept —, from a deep dream | have awaken: — the world is deep, and more deeply conceived than day. Deep is its pain joy — deeper stil than heartache. Pain says: Die! But all joy seeks eternity-- seeks deep, deep eternity!” Fifth Movement from The Youth’s Magic Horn) Three angels were singing a sweet song, in blissful joy t rang through heaven. ‘They shouted too for joy that Peter was set free from sin! ‘And as Lord Jesus sat at table, land ate the evening meal with his twelve disciples, Lord Jesus said: Why do you stand here? When I look at you, you weep at me!“Und soll” ich nicht weinen, du gatiger Gott? Ich hab’ abertreten die zehn Gebot! Ich gehe und weine ja bitterlich! ‘Ach komm und erbarme dich liber rich!” “Hast du denn ibertreten die zehen Gebot, ‘0 fall auf die Knie und bete 2u Gott! Liebe nur Gott in alle Zer So wirst du erlangen die himmlische Freud.” Die himmlische Freud! ist eine selige Stadt, die himmlische Freud’, die kein Ende mehr hat! Die himmlische Freude war Petro beret. durch Jesum und allen zur Seligkeit, coa SINFONIE NR. 4 4, Satz — (Aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn) Wir geniessen die himmiischen Freuden, dium tun wir das Irdische meiden. Kein weltlich’ Getummel hort man nicht im Himmel! Lebt Alles in sanftester Ruh’! Wir fuhren ein englisches Leben! Sind dennoch ganz lustig daneben! Wir fuhren ein englisches Leben, ‘wir tanzen und springen, ‘wir hupfen und singen! a7 ‘And should | not weep, thou bounteous God? have broken the ten commandments! | wander weeping bitterly! ‘© come and have mercy on me! Hf you have broken the ten commandments, then fall on your knees and pray to God! Just love God forever! Thus you will gain heavenly joy. Heavenly joy is a blessed city, heavenly joy, that has no end! Heavenly joy was granted to Peter, through Jesus, and to all men for eternal bliss ‘SYMPHONY NO.4 Fourth movement (from The Youth's Magic Horn) We enjoy the heavenly pleasures, so we avoid all earthly things. No worldly clamour is heard in Heaven! All live in gentle peace! ‘We lead an angelic life, yet we are quite merry withal! We lead an angelic life, we dance and leap, ‘we skip and sing!Sanet Peter im Himmel sieht zu! Johannes das Lammiein auslasser, der Metzger Herodes drauf passet! Wir fuhren ein geduldig's, unschuidig’s, geduldig’,, ein liebliches Lammilein 2u Tod! Sanet Lucas den Ochsen tat schlachten ‘ohn’ einig’s Bedenken und Achten, der Wein kost’ Kein’ Heller im himmlischen Keller, die Englein, die backen das Brot, Gut’ Krauter von allerhand Arten, die wachsen im himmlischen Garten! Gut’ Sparel, Fisolen tnd was wir nur wollen! Ganze Schusseln voll sind uns bereit! Gut’ Apfel, gut’ Bin und gut’ Trauben! Die Gartner, die Alles erlauben! Wills Rehbock, wilist Hasen, auf offener Strassen Sie laufen herbei! Sollt ein Fasttag etwa kommen alle Fische gleich mit Freuden angeschwommen! ort lauft schon Sanct Peter mit Netz und mit Kader zum himmnlischen Welher hinein. Sanct Martha die Kéchin muss sein! Kein Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, die uns'rer verglichen kann werden, Eiftausend Jungfrauen Saint Peter in Heaven looks on! John ets the little lamb loose, Herod the butcher lies in wait fort! ‘We lead a meek, innocent, meek, sweet litle lamb to its death! Saint Luke slaughters the ox ‘without a thought or a care:the wine costs not a penny in the heavenly cellar, the angels bake the bread Fine herbs of many kinds ‘grow in the heavenly garden! Fine asparagus, beans, and whatever we want! Whole platefuls are prepared for us! Fine apples, fine pears and fine grapes — the gardeners let us have them all! IFyou want venison or hare, down the open streets, they come running! there's a fast day, all the fish come happily swimming up! There Saint Peter comes running ‘with his net and his bait along into the heavenly pond. Saint Martha must be the cook! There is no music on earth that can be compared to ours. Eleven thousand virgins.zu tanzen sich trauen! Sanct Ursula selbst dazu lacht! Kein Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, die uns'rer verglichen kann werden. Cicilia mit ihren Verwandten, sind treffiche Hofmusikanten! Die englischen Stimmen ‘ermuntern die Sinnen, dass Alles fur Freuden erwacht. cog ‘SINFONIE NR. 8 ERSTER TEIL, Veni, Creator Spiritus @ Veni, Creator Spiritus, Mentes tuorum visita; ] Imple superna gratia, ‘Quae tu creasti pectora ‘Qui diceris Paraciitus, Altissimi, donum Dei, Fons vivus, ignis, caritas, Et spintais unctio. [5] Infirrna nostri corporis, Virtute firmans perpeti © Accende lumen sensibus, Infunde amorem cordibus. throw themselves into the dance! Saint Ursula herself laughs at the sight! There is no music on earth that can be compared to ours, Cecilia and her relations are splendid court musicians! The angelic voices cheer the senses, 50 all awakens to oy. SYMPHONY NO.8 PART ONE Come, Creator Spirit Come, Creator Spirit visit our souls, fil them with grace, Thou, that didst create them. Thou, that art called Comforter, highest aift of God, living fount, fre, love and unetion of the spint — Endow our weak flesh ‘with perpetual strength, kindle our senses with light, pour Thy love into our hearts,Hostem repellas longius, Pacemque dones protinus; Ductore sic te praevio Vitemus omne pessimum. Tu septitormis munere, Digitus paternae dexterae, (Tu nte promissum Patr ‘Sermone ditans guttura.)* Per te sciamus da Patrem, Noscamus fatquel Filium, (Te utriusque) Spinitum Credemus omni tempore. Veni, Creator Spiritus] Da gaudiorum praemia, Da gratiarum munera; Dissolve itis vinvula, ‘Adstange pacis foedera Gloria Pats Domino, Natoque, quia mortuis Surrexit, ac Paraclito In saeculorum saecula, “(omitted by Mahler/nicht vertont/omis par Mabien Drive the Enemy far from us, grant us lasting peace, 0, beneath Thy guidance, ‘we may avoid alll Thou, sevenfold in gifts, finger of the Father's ight hand. ‘tue promise of God, that dost endow our tongues with speech, Give us to know Father and Son through Thee, and Thee, emanating of both, ‘grant we may always believe. Come, Creator Spit] Give us joy, grant us Thy grace, ‘smooth our quarrels, preserve us in bonds of peace. Glory be to the Father, to His Son, who rose from the dead, ‘and to our Advocate and Comforter for ever and evercD 10 ‘ZWEITER TEIL, ‘Schlu8szene aus Goethes “Faust II” (Bergschluchten, Wald, Fels. Eindde, Heilige Anachoreten, gebirgauf verteil, gelagert zwischen Kluften.) CHOR und ECHO ‘Waldung, sie schwankt heran, Felsen, sie lasten dan, Wurzein, sie klammern an, ‘Stamm dicht an Stamm hinan, Woge nach Woge sprizt, Hohle, die tiefste, schutzt; Lowen, sie schleichen stumm, Freundlich um uns herum, Ehren geweihten Ort, Hetligen Liebeshort PATER ECSTATICUS (auf- und abschwebend) Ewiger Wonnebrand, Glishendes Liebeband, Siedender Schmerz der Brust, Schaumende Gotteslust Pfeile, durchdringet mich, Lanzen, bezwinget mich, Keulen, zerschmettert mich, Biitze, durchwettert mich, Daf ja das Nichtige Alles verfluchtige, 1 PART TWO. Final Scene from Goethe's Faust Part Il (Mountain gorge, forest. cliff, desert. Holy Anchoritas are sheltering in rocky clefts.) CHOIR and ECHO Forest sways, rocks press heavily, roots ari, tree-trunk close to tee-trunk. Wave upon wave breaks, foaming, deepest cavern provides shelter Lions, fnendly disposed, pad silently round us — They honour the sacred place, the holy sanctuary of Love. PATER ECSTATICUS {soaring up and down) Eternal passion of delight, lave's glowing bond, ‘seething agony of the breast foaming happiness divine! ‘Arrows, pierce me through, ‘spears, subdue me, clubs, erush me quit, lightning, flash through me, ‘that all things volatile ‘should vanish without fat,Glanze der Dauerstern, Ewiger Liebe Kern! PATER PROFUNDUS {tiefe Region) Wie Felsenabgrund mir zu FuBen Auf tiefem Abgrund lastend ruht, Wie tausend Biche strahlend flie@en Zum grausen Sturz des Schaums der Flut, Wie strack, mit eig’nem kraft’gen Trebe, Der Stamm sich in die Lufte tragt; So ist es die allmacht'ge Liebe, Die alles biker, alles heat Ist um mich her ein wildes Brausen, ‘Als wogte Wald und Felsengrund! Und doch sturzt,liebevoll im Sausen, Die Wasserfille sich zum Schiund, Berufen, gleich das Tal zu waBern, Der Bitz, der flammend niederschlug, Die Atmosphare zu verbessern, Die Gift und Dunst im Busen trug: Sind Liebesboten, sie verkiinden, Wes ewig schaffend uns umwall Mein Inn'res még’ es auch entzunden, Wo sich der Geist, verworren, kalt, \Verquait in stumpfer Sinne Schranken, ‘Scharf angeschloss'nem Kettenschmerz 0 Gott! beschwichtige die Gedanken, Erleuchte mein beduritig Herz! that the everlasting star, ‘nucleus of eternal love, may shine forth! PATER PROFUNDUS nether region) ‘As the rocky precipice at my feet tests heauly in the deep abyss, 48 a thousand streams, sparkling, flow to the dread cataract of the foaming flood, a, straight upward, of 3 own powerful drive the tree-trunk rears itself in the aif, 's0 tis almighty love that shapes all and cherishes al When around me wild tumult roars, 25 1f forest and rocky bottom were in upheaval, and yet the mass of waters, loving in ts bluster, hurls itself into the gorge, ‘summoned presently to water the valley, the lightning, which flames downwards to punfy the atmosphere ‘which carries in its bosom poison and fumes — these are harbingers of love, they proclaim that which ever seethes, creating, round us. ‘Qh, might it kindle also my inmost being where my spint, confused and cold, agonises, imprisoned by a dulled brain, fast locked in fetters of pain, ‘Qh, God, soothe my thoughts, * enlighten my needful heart!ENGEL (achwebend in der hohern Amosphare, Faustens Unsterbliches tragend) Gerettet ist das edie Glied Der Gersterwelt vom Basen Wer immer strebend sich berniint, Den konnen war erlosen: Und hat an ihm die Liebe gar Von oben telgenommen, Begegnet ihm die sel’ge Schar Mit herzlichem Willkommen, CHOR SELIGER KNABEN (um die hochsten Gipfel kretsend) Hande verschlinget euch Freudig zum Ringverein! Regt euch und singet Hellige Gefihle dreint Gottlch bolehret, Darft ihr vertrauen Den ihr verehret, Werdet ihe schauen, DIE JUNGEREN ENGEL Jene Rosen, aus den Handen Liebend-heil’ger BuBerinnen, Halfen uns den Sieg gewinnen Und das hohe Werk vollenden, Diesen Seelenschatz erbeuten, Base wichen, als wir streuten, Teufel flohen, als war trafen, Statt gewohnter Hallenstraten Fihlten Liebesqual die Gerster ANGELS (bearing Faust's immortal essence, ‘as they soarin the upper ait) Saved is the noble member ‘of the spirit world from evil: that man, who ‘endeavours, ever striving, him we have power to redeem, and if love from on high has also taken its part, the blessed host will encounter him with heartfelt greeting, BLESSED BOYS foirciing the highest peaks) Clasp hands joyfully in the circle of union, bestir yourselves, and may your songs. ‘add holy sentiments thereto. Divinely instructed you may rest assured: He, whom you worship, ‘you will behold! YOUNGER ANGELS Those roses from the hands of loving-holy women penitents helped us to achieve victory and fulfil the divine purpose, Capture this souFtreasure Evil retreated as we stewed, devils fled as we pelted Instead of the accustomed punishments of hell, the spints experienced pangs of love;180) Selbst der alte Satans-Messter War von spitzer Pein durchdrungen. Jauchzet auf! es ist gelungen DIE VOLLENDETEREN ENGEL Uns bleibt ein Erdenrest Zu tragen peinich, Und war’ er von Asbest Erist nicht reinlich Wenn starke Geisteskraft Die Elemente ‘An sich herangerafft, Kein Engel trennte Geeinte Zwienatur Der innigen beiden, Die ewige Liebe nur \Vermag's zu scheiden DIE JUNGEREN ENGEL Ich spur’ soeben, Nebelnd um Felsenhoh’ Ein Geisterleben, Regend sich in der Nah" Seliger Knaben Seb’ ich bewegte Schar, Los von der Erde Druck Im Kreis gesell, Die sich erlaben ‘Am neuen Lenz und Schmuck Der obern Welt even the old master-Satan himself was pierced by sharp pain — Rejoice! tis fulfilled! MORE PERFECT ANGELS To us remains an earthly residue painful to bear, ‘and though it were of asbestos made, yet its not clean When the great might of the spint has grappled fast ‘each element to itself no angel could put asunder the two joined natures of the firmly united pair — the everlasting love alone ‘would be capable of dividing them. YOUNGER ANGELS perceive at this moment misty round the rocky heights, 2 round of spints moving nearby: ‘see a sting ghost of blessed children, {reed from the burden of earth, ‘ma circle joined ‘who delight themselves ‘in the new springtime and embellishment of the world above.6.1) DOCTOR MARIANUS {in der hochsten, reinlichsten Zelle) Hier ist die Aussicht fe) Der Geist erhoben, DIE JUNGEREN ENGEL Sei er zum Anbeginn, Steigendem Voligewinn, Diesen gesellt! DOCTOR MARIANUS Dott ziehen Frauen vorbe, ‘Schwebend nach oben, Die Hertiche mittenin im Sternenkranze, Die Himmelskonigin, CHOR SELIGER KNABEN Freudig empfangen wir Diesen im Puppenstand iso erlangen wir Englisches Unterptana, Loset die Flocken los, Die thn umgeben! ‘Schon ist er schon und gro Von heliger Leben. DOCTOR MARIANUS Ich seh’s am Glanze! Hochste Herrscherin der Welt, Lae mich im blauen Ausgespannten Himmelszelt Dein Geheimnis schauen! DOCTOR MARIANUS (in the highest, most pure celt of all, Here the prospect's free, the spint elevated. YOUNGER ANGELS Let him, at first, be joined with these All, everancreasing, finally he attain the highest gain. DOCTOR MARIANUS Women are passing there, soaring towards the heights inthe centre, the all glorious one, ina coronet of stars, the Queen of heaven BLESSED BOYS Joyfully we welcome him in his chrysalis condition: thus we do receive an angelic pledge Shake off the flakes that envelop him He is already tall and beautiful through the holy Ife DOCTOR MARIANUS ‘perceive by the splendour! Most exalted mistress of the world! Inthe blue outspread vault of heaven, Jet me behold thy mystery!62) Bil'ge, was des Manes Brust Ernst und zart bewegt Und mit heil'ger Liebestust ir entgegen traat! Unbezwinglich unser Mut, Wenn du hehe gebietest: Plotzlich mildert sich die Glut, Wenn du uns befnedest DOCTOR MARIANUS und CHOR Jungfrau, rein im schonsten Sinne, Mutter, Ehren wurdia, Uns erwahite Konigin, Gétter ebendurtig, (Mater Gloriosa schwebt einher) cHOR Dir, der Unberahrbaren, Ist es nicht benommen, aB die leicht Vertuhrbaren Traulich 2u dir kommen, Indie Schwachhent hingerattt, Sind sie schwer 2u retten, Wer zerreift aus eig'ner Kraft Der Geluste Ketton? We entglenet schnell der Fu Schiefem, glattem Boden? BUSSERINNEN (und Una Poenitentiun — Gretchen} Du schwebst zu Héhen Der ewigen Reiche, 96 ‘Accept that which moves the breast of man tenderly and gravely ‘and which, with love's holy iy, he offers up to thee Indomitable our courage, ‘when thou, sublime, commandest passions at once subside, when thou dost pacify us. DOCTOR MARIANUS and CHOIR \Vigin, pure inthe fairest sense mother worthy to be honoured, ‘queen chosen for us, ‘equal to gods! (Mater Gloriosa soars into view) CHOIR To thee, virgin-unassailable, itis not denied that the easily led-astray ‘may confidently approach thee Carnied away in frailty, they are difficult to save Who, of his own strength, can break free from the chains of desire? How quickly does the foot slip ‘upon a smooth, slaping floor! = PENITENT WOMEN, (With Una Poenitentium — Gretchen) Thou dost soar to the heights cof the eternal kingdom,Vernimm das Fehen, Du Gnadenreiche! Du Ohnegleiche! MAGNA PECCATRIX Bei der Liebe, die den Fugen Deines gottverklarten Sohnes Tranen lie® zum Balsarn fle@en, Trowz des Phariséer-Hohnes; Beim Getfae, das so reicilich ‘Tropfte Wohigeruch hernieder; Bei den Locken, die so weichlich ‘Trockneten die heilgen Glieder — MULIER SAMARITANA Bei dem Bronn, zu dem schon weiland ‘Abram lie® die Herde fahren: Bei dem Eimer. der dem Heiland Kuhl die Lippe durtt’ beruhren; Ber der reinen reichen Quelle, Die nun dorther sich ergieRet, Unerfidssig, ewig helle, Rings durch alle Welten thet — MARIA AEGYPTIACA, Bei dem hochgeweihten Onte, Wo den Herin man niederlio®, Bei dem Arm, der von der Pforte, Wamend mich zuricke stie8. Bei der vierzigiahr'gen Buse, Der ich treu in Wasten bleb, Bei dem sel'gen Scheidegrute, Den im Sand ich niederschrieb — 7 accept our prayer, thou, rich in mercy, thou, unparalleled! MAGNA PECCATRIX By the love that on the feet Of thy divinely transfigured Son let fall tears as balsam, despite the scorn of the Pharisee, by the vessel which so nchly dropped sweet fragrance, by the tresses that so softly dhied the holy limbs — MULIER SAMARITANA By the well to which of old already Abraham drove his flock, by the water-pot which was suffered to touch, refreshing, the Saviour's lips, by the pure rich spring which, spilling over, etemally cleat, ours now from thence, flows round about through all the world — MARIA AEGYPTIACA, By the sublime and holy place where they laid Our Lord. by the arms that, from the gate, ‘warning, thrust me back, by the forty-yearong repentance [faithfully adhered to in the desert, by the sacred farewell | wrote in the sand —ZU DREL Die du graRen Sundennnen Deine Nahe nicht verweigerst, Und ein buendes Gewinnen In fre Ewigkeiten stewgerst, Gon’ auch dieser guten Sele, Die sich einmal nur vergessen, Die nicht ahnte, daB sie fehle, Dein Verzeihen angemessen! UNA POENITENTIUM (Gretchen) Neige, neige, Du Ohnegleiche, Du Strahienreiche, Dein Antitz gnadig meinem Gluck! Der frih Geliebte, Nicht mehr Getrubte, Er kommt zuruck CHOR SELIGER KNABEN fin Kreisbewegung sich nahernd) Er Gberwachst uns schon ‘An macht'gen Gliedern, Wird treuer Pilege Lohn Reichlich erwidern, Wir wurden frih entfernt Von Lebecharen, Doch dieser hat geternt: Er wird uns lehren, UNA POENITENTIUM (Gretchen) Vom edlen Geisterchor umgeben, ‘Wird sich der Neue kaum gewabr, ALL THREE Thou who dost not deny thy presence to penitent women, who have greatly sinned, and to eternity dost raise the victory gained by repentance, grant also to this good soul ‘who fell but once, ‘not suspecting that she erred, thy just pardon! UNA POENITENTIUM (Gretchen) Incline, meline thou, unparalleled, thou, richly-radiant thy countenance upon my happiness. The love of long ago, now free from stain, 's returning, BLESSED BOYS {circling near) He outstrips us already ‘on mighty limbs, he wal richly requite the reward of faithful care, We were early snatched from the choir of the living; but this man has learnt, he wall teach us. UNA POENITENTIUM (Gretchen Eneircled by the noble choir of spirits the newly-arived is scarcely conscious of himself,Er ahnet kaumn das frische Leben, So gleicht er schon der heil'gen Scher. Sieh, wie er jedem Erdenbande Der alten Hille sich entra, Und aus athenschem Gewande Hervortntt erste Jugendkraft! \Vergonne mir, ihn zu belehren, Noch blendet ihn der neue Tag MATER GLORIOSA Komm! Hebe dich 2u hahern Spharen! Wenn er dich ahnet, folgt er nach. CHOR Korninl Korn! DOCTOR MARIANUS und CHOR Blicket auf zum Retterblick, Alle reuig Zarten, Euch zu sel'gem Gluck Danken umzuarten! Werde jeder bess're Sinn Dir zum Dienst erbotig: Jungfrau, Mutter, Kénigin, Gottin, bieibe gnadig! Bleibe gnadig! CHORUS MYSTICUS Alles Vergangliche Ist nur ein Gleichnis; Das Unzuléngliche, Hier witd's Ereignis; Das Unbeschreiblche, hardly conscious of the new life, ‘so much does he resemble the sacred host already. See how he divests himself of every earthly bond of his erstwhile husk, and, from ethereal raiment, steps forth inthe first flush of youth! Allow me 10 be his tutor, the new day dazzles him stil! MATER GLORIOSA Come, raise yourselt to higher spheres! When he aporehends you, he will folow after. CHORUS Come! Come! DOCTOR MARIANUS and CHORUS Look up, up to the redeeming gaze all creatures frail and contrite, that you may gratetully be translated to blissful fortune. May every better impulse be ready at your service; virgin, mother, queen, goddess, be ever gracious! Be ever gracious! CHORUS MYSTICUS All things transitory are but parable, here insufficiency becomes fulfiment, here the indescribableHier ist’s getan; is accomplished: Das Ewig Weibliche the ever-womanly Zieht uns binen, draws us heavenward. Translation DECCA 1991 100Producers: James Malinson (Symphonies 1 -4, 9} David Harvey (Symphonies 5 -8) Engineers: James Lock (Symphonies 1 - 4, 9) John Dunkerley (Symphonies 2, 4) Gordon Parry (Symphonies 5 -8) Kenneth Wikinson (Symphonies 7, 8) Recording locations: Orchestra Hall, Chicago (No.1 — October 1983/No.3 — November 1982/No.4 — April 1983/No.9 — May 1982) ‘Medinah Temple, Chicago (No.2 — May 1880/No.5 — March 1970/No.6 — March/Apsil 1970) Krannert Centre, University of llinois. (No.7 — May 1871) Sofiensaal, Vienna (No.8 — September 1971) Box cover: Gustav Mahler — Bildarchiv d, Ost, Nationalbibliothek ‘Art direction: Jeremy Tilston Design: Alex Smith 101430 804-2