Mahler achieved the height of success in 1897 upon becoming director of Vienna’s Hofoper. In his inaugural season, he led the city’s first production of Wagner’s complete Ring cycle — a dream come true. He was also productive as a composer during his decade at the Hofoper with increasing performances and premieres, and completing his fourth through eighth symphonies.
He dramatically improved the opera’s finances and artistic standing in Europe, yet faced resistance around every corner. The growing din of antisemitism coming from politicians, critics, and audiences made him feel like an outsider, echoing a sentiment he experienced in most of his prior jobs. Exhausted, he left Vienna for the welcoming environs of the Metropolitan Opera.
Even with successes, he could not forget the stinging words of his detractors, and the third movement is a caustic rebuke of their nagging gripes. A common and painful accusation was his inability to write counterpoint. That is, the ability to navigate the complexities of multiple simultaneous independent lines. He later claimed the movement was dedicated “to my brothers in Apollo,” a sarcastic salute to his high-minded critics.
Perhaps there is no better way to prove his contrapuntal credentials than with a double fugue, a layered call-and-response process with complex rules harkening to the time of Bach. A Burleske conveys comedic intent, but the joke is for Mahler alone. With his fugue, he serves his critics a silver platter, but the content is a bitter pill.
Harsh dissonances, disjointed orchestrations, and layers of stabbing and whining melodies create a noisy scene like the nusiant voices of a mob of naysayers infecting Mahler’s psyche. He pulls away from the noise for a moment of clarity and focus with a trumpet solo that introduces a new figure that gropes at a melody, but its incipient figure becomes an obsession that is morphed into intrusive mocking. Whatever calm this section provides disappears as the brutal counterpoint floods in, careening to the final presto that reaches a feverish mania.
