Program notes by Elaine Schmidt

Gustav Mahler

Born 7 July 1860; Kaliště, Czech Republic

Died 18 May 1911; Vienna, Austria

Symphony No. 2 in C minor, “Resurrection”

First performance: 13 December 1895; Berlin, Germany

Last MSO performance: June 2011; Edo de Waart, conductor; Twyla Robinson, soprano; Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano

Instrumentation: 4 flutes (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th doubling on piccolo); 4 oboes (3rd and 4th doubling on English horn); 4 clarinets (3rd doubling on bass clarinet, 4th doubling on 2nd E-flat clarinet); E-flat clarinet; 4 bassoons (3rd and 4th doubling on contrabassoon); 9 horns; 6 trumpets; 4 trombones; tuba; 2 timpani; percussion (bass drum, chimes, cymbals, glockenspiel, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam tam, triangle); 2 harps; organ; strings

Approximate duration: 1 hour and 20 minutes

Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” touches something universal in listeners: loss, longing, and the contemplation of death. Some of the reason for the emotions it elicits in listeners clearly lies in his use of melodic and harmonic language and his choice of texts. But his own emotional state as he stopped working on the piece and then returned to it, completing it seven years after he began, is undoubtedly at the heart of the piece’s expressive power.

Although we remember Mahler as the composer of nine completed symphonies, some incomparable Lieder, and of course, his orchestral song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth), he was much better known during his career as one of the most respected conductors of his day than as a composer. The fact that composing was secondary to conducting in his musical life gives some explanation for the span of seven years it took him to write his Symphony No. 2, but does not provide the entire picture.

Mahler began this piece in 1888 as he was working on completing his Symphony No. 1. He completed the single-movement tone poem that would eventually become the first movement of his Symphony No. 2 by the end of the year, but couldn’t decide if he should incorporate the tone poem into the new symphony or not. He also wrote a bit of the second movement, but that’s where he paused.

In 1889, Mahler’s personal world began to crumble. His father died in February, followed by one of his sisters in September, and his mother in October. Reeling from the enormity of those losses, Mahler had to take on the role of parent to his four younger siblings. All of this occurred as he was suffering multiple painful and debilitating health issues himself. To cap off the year, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 premiered in November in Budapest. It was not at all well received.

Mahler did, of course, return to his Symphony No. 2, but did not complete it until 1894. In it, he calls for a large orchestra, a chorus, and two vocal soloists: a soprano and a mezzo-soprano. He explores the theme of death in this piece as he would in varying degrees with each of his symphonies.

The first movement, which is dramatic and distinctly funereal in character, is contrasted by a simple second movement that resembles a Ländler folk dance. Mahler asked for a long pause after the first movement to soften the contrast between the two movements.

The third movement is a setting of a German folk song from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn), a book of German folk poems and songs that Mahler loved and that inspired a number of his pieces. The song depicts St. Anthony of Padua’s sermon to the fishes. The fourth movement, “Urlicht” (Primal Light), is exquisite in its simplicity. Mahler’s marking for the movement reads “very solemn but simple.”

Mahler described his inspiration for the piece’s final movement, saying, “It flashed on me like lightning, and everything became clear in my mind!” That lightning strike occurred when Mahler heard a hymn that was based on a German poem at the funeral of conductor Hans von Bülow. Mahler said, “It was the flash that all creative artists wait for.”

Mahler’s music was generally not well received during his lifetime. It was not until after World War II, and thanks to the efforts of conductors Leonard Bernstein, Bruno Walter, and a few others, that orchestras began playing Mahler’s works. Today those works are pillars of the orchestral repertoire, and Mahler is hailed as a brilliant composer and an essential link between the Romantic and Modern musical eras.