Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor

The premiere of Symphony No. 5 took place in Cologne on October 18th, 1904 and ended in a complete fiasco. Mahler bitterly noted: “The symphony is accursed, nobody can understand it. I’d like to conduct it fifty years after my death.”
Mahler’s Fifth was created in 1901-02 and belongs to his triptych of purely instrumental symphonies (5-7), where the composer modified his former style; among other things, he desisted from using lyrics to make his music more abstract and introduced contrapuntal work at a greater scale. Mahler left no programme notes to the piece. In his letter to Natalie Bauer-Lechner, he wrote of its “scherzo:” “This part is extremely difficult to work on because of its structure; all relationships and details require great artistic mastery. A seeming confusion must be sorted out like a Gothic cathedral: in higher order and harmony.” The end result left him dissatisfied – so much that he later returned thrice to edit the score.
The symphony consists of five movements grouped in three parts:
∙ I. The funeral march (Trauermarsch. In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt) is an extended introduction in rondo form. The elevated tone of its refrain comes between either the explosive or the nostalgic expression of the couplets. It begins and ends with a lonely fanfare of trumpets that also appears as a signal to usher the successive fragments of the piece.
∙ The dramatic Movement Two (Stürmisch bewegt. Mit größter Vehemenz) begins as a sonata form. The extreme contrast of themes produces an impression of constant strife. The motives of the first movement reappear and are developed.
∙ II. The contrasts in mood reach their apogee in the third movement (Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell), where the kaleidoscopic changes of the waltz (a sentimental, nostalgic, vivid and ribald ländler) surprisingly blends with polyphony.
∙ III. Movement Four ( Adagietto. Sehr langsam), with its colour reduced to the strings and the harp, is a simple arch form that contrasts with the other movements by its slow tempo and its euphonic character. The Ecstatic, lyrical song of the violin evokes a feeling of loving abandon.
∙ The climax of the cycle (Rondo – Finale. Allegro) in the form of a sonata rondo, is a recapitulation and a synthesis of all major tendencies in the symphony (the marching rhythm, the contrasting themes, the polyphony). The main theme is a quotation of the composer’s jesting song, Lob des hohen Verstandes, the second theme – an expressive development of a fragment of Adagietto. Its joyful narrative is permeated with contrapuntal technique, causing the finale to become one of the composer’s most elaborately polyphonic scores.

Ewa Siemdaj