Gustav Mahler Essentials

Mahler once famously said that a symphony should be like the world, and contain everything. It’s therefore unsurprising that his own symphonies should be among the most expansive and intensely expressive ever written. Often they chart a journey from darkness into light (Nos. 1, 2, and 5), while also wrestling with issues of mortality (Nos. 9 and 10). A passionate love of nature is also evident, particularly in the pantheistic Third Symphony and many of Mahler’s songs. Mahler took the art of orchestration to a new level, his sumptuous late-Romantic textures spiced by searing harmonies and sharply expressionistic woodwind writing. A sense of existential disquiet suffuses his music, expressed in the yearningly heartfelt melodies which have enthralled successive generations of listeners.