Symphony No. 2 in C Minor

No one could accuse Mahler of a lack of ambition. Scored for huge choral and orchestral forces, his Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”) (1888-94) begins with an unmistakable portrait of death (one of Mahler’s grimmest funeral marches) and ends with a choral hymn to resurrection and eternal life. In between, the Second Symphony charts a gripping journey through terror, love, existential nightmare, and a spectacular evocation of the Day of Judgement, before ending in oceanic affirmation. Taking his cues from Beethoven and Wagner, Mahler uses such abstract-sounding processes as long-term thematic development to create music that not only appears to tell a gripping story, but even invites us to draw philosophical conclusions. But what kind of story is it? On one occasion, Mahler insisted that the religious symbolism of the choral “Resurrection” hymn was not to be taken literally: it was a message for the here and now—an invitation to live fully in this life. Yet, listening to the massed voices ecstatically crying out the words “to God, to God” in the huge final crescendo, it is hard to resist the feeling that Mahler really meant it. Such questions, however, are for after the performance; while the music sounds, it is easier simply to abandon oneself to its searing emotional narrative and revel in its imaginative richness and power.