Gustav Mahler was born in Kalište, Bohemia, on July 7, 1860, and died in Vienna, Austria, on May 18, 1911. The first performance of the Fifth Symphony took place in Cologne, Germany, on October 18, 1904, with the composer conducting the Gürzenich Orchestra. The Fifth Symphony is scored for four flutes (3rd doubling 1st piccolo, 4th doubling 2nd piccolo), three oboes (3rd doubling English horn), three clarinets (3rd doubling E-flat clarinet and bass clarinet), three bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), six horns, four trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, snare drum, triangle, tam-tam, glockenspiel, whip, cymbals, bass drum, harp, and strings. Approximate performance time is sixty-eight minutes.
On the afternoon of February 24, 1901, Gustav Mahler conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in a demanding program that featured the monumental Symphony No. 5 of Anton Bruckner. Later that evening, Mahler was back on the podium at the Court Opera to conduct yet another lengthy work—Mozart’s The Magic Flute. That same night, Mahler suffered a massive hemorrhage. Quick action by Mahler’s sister Justine to summon a physician saved his life.
The next day, Mahler confided to his friend, Natalie Bauer-Lechner:
You know, last night I nearly passed away. When I saw the faces of the two doctors, I thought my last hour had come...While I was hovering on the border between life and death, I wondered whether it would not be better to have done with it all at once, since everyone must come to that in the end. Besides the prospect of dying did not frighten me in the least, provided my affairs are in order, and to return to life seemed almost a nuisance.
Mahler told his brother-in-law, Arnold Rosé: “I lost a third of my blood that night. I shall certainly recover, but the illness will still have cost ten years of my life.”
Mahler did indeed recover, and in June of 1901, the composer journeyed to his newly-constructed vacation home in Maiernigg on Lake Wörth in southern Austria. During his three-month stay in Maiernigg, Mahler began his Fifth Symphony, completing the first two movements. He finished the short score of his Fifth during the summer of 1902 while in Maiernigg. Mahler completed the orchestration the following year, and conducted the work’s premiere in Cologne at an October 18, 1904 concert.
The Fifth marks a turning point in Mahler’s symphonic output. Mahler’s Symphonies 1-4 are all related to the composer’s songs based upon texts from a collection of folk poems known as Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn). Indeed, Symphonies 2-4 contain movements for vocalists based upon Wunderhorn texts. By contrast, Nos. 5-7 are all purely orchestral compositions.
Today, the Mahler Fifth rightfully enjoys its status as one of the towering achievements of a unique genius. But as with many of Mahler’s works, the Fifth was slow to gain acceptance. One critic scoffed: “Mahler had not much to say in his Fifth Symphony and occupied a wondrous time saying it.” A year after the premiere, Mahler lamented, “The Fifth is an accursed work. No one understands it.” That was of course not entirely true. The Fifth Symphony did have its early advocates, including poet Ida Dehmel, who offered the following eloquent appreciation:
This Fifth Symphony of his carried me through every world of feeling. I heard in it the relation of adult man to everything that lives, heard him cry to mankind out of his loneliness, cry to man, to home, to God, saw him lying prostrate, heard him laugh his defiance and felt his calm triumph. For the first time in my life a work of art made me weep, a strange sense of contrition came over me which almost brought me to my knees.
ERSTER TEIL (PART ONE)
I. Trauermarsch. In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt (Funeral March. With measured pace. Strict. Like a cortège)—The opening movement is an expansive Funeral March, launched by a solo trumpet. The March is at one point interrupted by an extended passage of extraordinary violence and despair. The mysterious final statement of the fanfare is capped by an emphatic, pizzicato chord.
II. Stürmisch bewegt. Mit grösster Vehemenz (Violently agitated. With the greatest vehemence)—According the Mahler, this is the true opening movement of the Symphony, with the preceding Funeral March serving as an introduction (echoes of the Funeral March do indeed return throughout). The movement opens with tremendous fury. Suddenly, the measured tread of the Funeral March reappears. The lengthy development features a stunning contrast of moods, concluding with the hint of a chorale that will return toward the end of the Symphony.
ZWEITER TEIL (PART TWO)
III. Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell (Vigorously, not too fast)—In contrast to the opening two movements, the Scherzo—which stands on its own as the Symphony’s second part—radiates optimism. As Mahler commented to Natalie Bauer-Lechner, the Scherzo “is mankind in the full brightness of day, at the zenith of life.”
DRITTER TEIL (PART THREE)
IV. Adagietto. Sehr langsam (Very slow)—Scored for strings and harp, the meditative Adagietto is a reflective intermezzo between the exuberant Scherzo and concluding Rondo. According to the composer’s friend, conductor Willem Mengelberg: “This Adagietto was Gustav Mahler’s declaration of love for (his wife) Alma! Instead of a letter, he sent her this manuscript without further explanation. She understood and wrote back that he should come!!! Both have told me this!”
The concluding Rondo follows without pause.
V. Rondo-Finale. Allegro—A brief introduction provides a glimpse of the Finale’s central themes, the first of which is ultimately presented in more fully-developed form by the horns. The strings launch a vigorous contrapuntal episode. After a repeat of the initial melody and contrapuntal passage, the strings offer yet another central theme, based upon the preceding Adagietto. Throughout the Finale, the themes are repeated and manipulated with stunning virtuosity. Toward the Rondo’s conclusion, the second-movement chorale returns in its most triumphant form, as the Fifth Symphony hurtles to a joyous close.
Program notes by Ken Meltzer