Some recommended recordings: I’ve grown to love the recordings by Sir Georg Solti with the London Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Haitink with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, both on Decca. The performances and tempi are spot on and feel natural. Simon Rattle with the City of Birmingham Symphony is good too and Dimitri Mitropoulos with the New York Philharmonic live is a good historical reference of a fast conducting pace (under an hour twenty!!), albeit the fidelity is lacking. I used to like the Leonard Bernstein New York Philharmonic recordings on Columbia and Deutsche Grammophon, but now I have come to realize that his tempi are off and he is way too slow in the final movement: he draws it out too long, so it loses all of its power. But still, Bernstein is a respected Mahler interpreter, so I would be remiss in not including him as well.
As a side note, and pleasantly timely, April and I saw this symphony performed at NJPAC last Friday. The performance was a bit idiosyncratic, there were a few flubs, and you could see the orchestra get a little winded during the third movement, but the conductor Xian Zhang was really getting into the performance, it is supposedly her favorite symphony. Her conducting gestures were so animated and contained so much movement, yet it was effective. And the orchestra gave 100% and you could feel their enthusiasm for taking on such a gargantuan piece.
Gustav Mahler wrote to Jean Sibelius that “A symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything” When he wrote this, he was referring to this Symphony No. 3 he was in the process of creating. Even the recent Mahler podcast series “Embrace Everything” by Aaron Cohen feels like it could not have been titled anything else. After two already epically proportioned and themed symphonies, Mahler comes back in his Third with a massive six movement symphony that is the story of the creation and development of everything: the world, life, the universe, ultimate purpose, etc. It’s the longest symphony in the standard repertoire, clocking in at over an hour and a half, sometimes an hour and forty minutes! Some early titles he considered were “Pan: Symphonic Poems” or “My Joyful Science,” a nod to Friedrich Nietzsche, whose Thus Spoke Zarathustra he quotes in the fourth movement. Pan refers to the Greek rustic pastoral god, whose nature-creation qualities Mahler latches onto here. It’s also possible he is referring to him because Plutarch recorded news during the reign of Emperor Tiberius that “The great god Pan is dead” and the symphony is alluding to the death of God (or our traditional senses of Him) and providing us with an account of Mahler’s alternative pantheism (the Nietzsche connection is hard to avoid here too, especially because “God is Dead” appears in Nietzsche's The Gay Science). “Pan” could also be a double entendre, referring to the prefix “pan-” meaning “all, everything”
Even though Mahler eschewed programs, he did provide program notes and movement titles during the first few performances:
"Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In"
"What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me"
"What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me"
"What Man Tells Me"
"What the Angels Tell Me"
"What Love Tells Me"
I will address the titles, themes, notes, and commentary as we pass through each movement. Let’s begin!
Part I, First Movement: "Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In" is in sonata form, and I had originally thought it was less complex than the opening Totenfeier movement of his Second Symphony, but I see I am mistaken. The movement opens with a great trombone and brass fanfare (you may hear a foreshadowing of the types of sardonic brass parts composer Dmitri Shostakovich would include in his later works as a nod). There are these menacing muted or offstage upward trumpet runs during the development of the opening fanfare, which is a very dramatic section, with much interplay between the brass and strings. To me, this section connotes the creation of the world: you can see the lava and rock bursting forth almost like something from Fantasia’s Rite of Spring animated sequence. Underpinned by bassoon trills we come to a quieter, moodier section. Then we have a new woodwind based motif, with fluttering of the upper register woodwinds like flute and clarinet. Maybe this is portraying the god Pan entering the scene trying to create life on a lifeless hostile Earth?
We return to the opening motif but this time it’s presented by solo trombone with variations following on. We have more development, and then a wonderful brass march fanfare/theme which the listener will quickly notice is just a major key recapitulation of the opening motif! Also, it sounds like a marching band in summer, a nod to Mahler’s youthful exposure to local town bands! Embrace Everything podcast (EE) describes the march as Pan coming through, bringing the first stirrings of life and green to the world. This march occurs about halfway through the movement and then it climaxes with a great whirlwind/crescendo of brass and orchestra, this recapitulation motif gives us our first impression of the universal and infinity. Now the movement crashes back to the creation motif and dour mood of the beginning of the movement. EE thinks this is the failed attempt at creating nature, frustrated by the harsh, primordial creative world forces. After some more development, ⅔ of the way through the movement another brass theme appears, followed by an offstage snare drum rattle, and then back to the opening motif again. The crashes of the timpani are like hammer blows, shaping the world. I hear and see primordial lightning. We hear a soft solo trombone and a low strings part that foreshadows a main motif from the final movement. We then hear a reprise of the 2nd triumphant brass theme/fanfare to close out the movement. The score instructions from Mahler himself tell the trumpets and woodwinds to point the bell up at the conductor to end the movement on a really joyful note! NB: The first movement is so long, it is considered its own first part of the symphony and sometimes a brief rest follows it.
Part II, Second Movement: Part II begins our “life” movements with “What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me” Finally we get a real minuet from Mahler in this second movement per the symphony’s score instructions. The movement begins with light string melodies and fiddling, which lead to airy flute and woodwind: to me you can hear the pastoral mood of the movement: nature has finally arrived, with its green meadows, plants, and flowers . Suddenly, we have a sweeping string motif which vaguely reminds me of how certain string parts in Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” sound: sadly we only hear this Scheherazade string swirl once and never again (as far as I can hear). A faster, hurried, sharper tone enters during the second half of the movement. It’s actually a quote from “The Heavenly Life” (Das himmlische Leben) which was originally planned as the final, seventh movement of this symphony, but Mahler decided to hold it back for the finale of his Fourth Symphony, per EE. Also thanks to the EE podcast’s owl ears: during the fast section, the meter changes but the tempo stays the same, ramping up the pace/energy but keeping lyrical continuity. I hear this fast section as Pan works his mischief again, this time to bring animal life into the world.
Third Movement: "What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me" is a scherzo that opens with a four note motif by clarinet and woodwind, which reminds me of his First Symphony. Why? For one, we again have a visualization of animals in the forest (think about the first movement in the First Symphony). Second, this movement opens with the melody from "Ablösung im Sommer" from Mahler’s “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” lieder, which he has again adopted for a symphony – Another Wunderhorn connection! This opening motif is developed further and continuously hinted at by Mahler throughout this movement. You can tell animals are now involved in Mahler’s story via the “coo-coo-cah-coo” pattern of the motif, referring to the cuckoo from the text of the lied he’s quoting. The churning strings and low parts remind me of Beethoven and his Pastoral symphony, fitting again and likely intentional. Then suddenly comes a stillness and we have a lonely post horn solo, which harkens back to Mahler’s youth living in the country. The horn call was used by the post service to announce their arrival from afar and there is something nostalgic and wistful about it. Is this the first sign of man entering our world? It would be fitting to see the discovery of man stumbling into the forest from the perspective of the animal world, hitherto now sheltered. Then the scherzo (opening part A) returns and we get some nice back and forth interplay from the orchestra. Animals playing and bounding around in nature come to mind. There is a slowdown and we hear more foreshadowing of a motif from the final movement with another nascent string part. A quiet passage then builds with woodwinds and we get a reference to the death/creation shriek from the first movement and then a harp flourish, after which horns and timpanis enter and we have a big finale to close out the movement.
Fourth Movement: “What Man Tells Me” with the score notes Sehr langsam—Misterioso (Very slowly, mysteriously). This short movement is a setting of the Midnight Song (“Oh Man, take heed!”) from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Nietzsche’s influence on Mahler is now coming more into focus. The darkness and stillness of the movement is in my mind a nod to the brooding parts of the early portion of the First Movement. The first hint at the entry of man during the last movement was not exactly happy sounding and this movement broods. It is in stark contrast with the moods and emotions of the second and third movements: perhaps plants and animals in their perpetual naïveté are forever ignorantly happy, yet man must live with the knowledge of the future and his existence. The Übermensch has this constant weight of existence that he must come to terms with in order to overcome. A mezzo-soprano sings the Midnight Song:
O Man! Take heed!
What does the deep midnight say?
“I slept, I slept —,
from a deep dream have I awoken: —
the world is deep,
and deeper than the day imagined.
Deep is its grief —,
Joy — deeper still than heartache.
Grief says: Perish!
But all joy seeks eternity —,
— seeks deep, deep eternity!”
Even though there is much grief in the world (and amplified in this midnight nocturnal land), the Übermensch (and we all) must embrace everything: both grief and joy, and joy is deeper and eternal and will overcome grief. The meaning of this movement didn’t click with me until I sat down with the lyrics and took the movement in during the NJPAC performance. Just like the Urlicht lied in the previous symphony, the midnight song (and the next movement) set us up for the arc of the remainder of the symphony, and the themes and narrative of the at-first-glance-inscrutable last movement.
Fun fact: an excerpt of this movement was used in Luchino Visconti’s film “Death in Venice” (which also used the fourth Adagietto movement from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony)
Fifth Movement: “What the Angels Tell Me” is a joyful piece that incorporates the Wunderhorn melody from the lied “Es sungen drei Engel” – it is surprisingly big in scope, using both an adult and children’s choir and the mezzo-soprano again! The movement is fine, but I prefer and like the darker parts here much better than the joyful parts, like the children as cherubim imitating bells with their voices. After seeing it performed live, and giving a deeper reading of the lyrics and how it fits into the narrative of the symphony, it has grown on me. In seeing a performance live, I just realized the joyful melody nods back to the marching band motif from the first movement!!! Or actually, Mahler composed the first movement opening motif with an eye to having it eventually transform into his already existing Wunderhorn lied – talk about planning and attention to detail! We are hearing the sounds of Angels, the next level of being above Man. And they are welcoming in Peter to heaven:
Three angels sang a sweet song,
with blessed joy it rang in heaven.
They shouted too for joy
that Peter was free from sin!
Then the movement takes a darker turn musically:
And as Lord Jesus sat at the table
with his Twelve Disciples and ate supper,
Lord Jesus said: "Why do you stand here?
When I look at you, you are weeping!"
"And should I not weep, kind God?
I have violated the Ten Commandments!
I wander and weep bitterly!
O come and take pity on me!"
The lyrics talk about Peter’s sinful flaws, but I also view the tone of the music as a reference to Mahler’s cynical view of innocence similar to the darker turn in the second movement of the Second Symphony describing the Hero’s childhood. But this darker turn is dispelled, there is still hope:
"If you have violated the Ten Commandments,
then fall on your knees and pray to God!
Love only God for all time!
Thus will you attain Heavenly Joy."
Heavenly Joy is a blessed city,
Heavenly Joy that has no end!
Heavenly Joy was granted to Peter
through Jesus, and to all mankind for eternal bliss.
Through God and repentance and coming to terms with our flaws and imperfection, we can be saved and reach Heavenly Joy. I had originally written off these two vocal movements but you can see that their inclusion is integral to the narrative pathway of the symphony (Grief and joy exist, joy is deeper than grief, the heavens welcome you despite what you have suffered and feel, and if you truly repent or accept the heavens, the will present you with eternal joy).
Sixth Movement: "What Love Tells Me" – the Adagio, in chorale form. I apologize in advance if my commentary here is muddled: there is too much to unpack, too much emotional ground to cover to properly express in words – it must be experienced and felt in the music itself. The movement begins with the main theme, which brings out this sense of longing, and continues to develop with strings, almost glacial (and possibly a slight nod to the end of the movement). As the movement progresses, we have the chorale trading off motives between the different sections of the orchestra: for example, the repetition of the main theme is performed by flute and woodwind, trading off between each other, but then the movement abruptly segues into another motif which is very wistful, with an eight note descending line, played here on strings. There is a build up of the first motif, which we will see again at the end of the movement. Now more development and a new motif enters, filled with tension and disharmony, that builds to a dramatic swell that returns to the chaotic outburst of the first movement, bringing thematic unity to the symphony. How is this movement about Love? What does love have to do with the world building at the start of our journey? Based on the previous two movements, we see that love is beautiful, joyful, painful, hideous, but we must accept the good and the bad and seek some sort of resolution and redemption surrounding it. Love here is love as we know it, but also God’s love, love of the universe.
We enter a quiet section led by flute that offers a brief respite and contemplative mood. Now the trumpets enter with their canon, playing this eight note descending motif we had heard earlier. We then get a full throated trombone rendition of this motif and we can tell the symphony is moving towards closure. Both these motives appear at the end of the movement intertwined in a masterful way that only Mahler can execute to bring it all home. Then we hear the final development and recapitulation of these themes taking us to the conclusion, trumpets pushing upward in the background, but in an extremely melancholic way. These are “Passages of burning pain” as Bruno Walter says and we can tangibly feel the searing emotion of the music. He is facing the Wheel of Ixion – eternal torment and frustration.
There is a pause before the final section where the orchestra goes quiet, reaching a sort of emotional zenith and nadir simultaneously, Man at his lowest point but also highest potential, completely spent but still persisting. But then unlike the previous expression of this motif, the orchestra re-enters with very soft woodwinds, which layer on brass, and then the orchestra crescendos into a titanic finale, where the symphony makes good on its promise to embrace everything as you feel the music rise to the level of the universe, all encompassing, where all is now one (both grief and joy together). From EE, Mahler is saying here, "Father, look upon my wounds” which is taken from a Wunderhorn poem about Redemption - finally the Love of God is revealed. You can feel the main protagonist of the movement, at the abject bottom, finally turn his eyes up to see the nature of God’s love, the universe revealed. Standing up confident now and at peace, he is consumed by the firmament and the empyrean light, in a blaze of glory.
In those final moments of the symphony after the quiet pause, think of this quotation from Gustav Mahler: “‘What Love Tells Me’ is a summary of my feelings towards all beings, not without divergences onto deeply painful side roads but which gradually resolves itself into a blissful faith – the Joyful Science!” In a way, this is Mahler’s nod to and interpretation of the Übermensch continually striving and finally overcoming.
I had always enjoyed this movement but it only began to resonate with me strongly in 2019, and has continued to hit home more and more as I have gotten older. If you think my gushing commentary is all hype, look at these appraisals from Mahler’s contemporaries:
Bruno Walter: “In the last movement, words are stilled—for what language can utter heavenly love more powerfully and forcefully than music itself? The Adagio, with its broad, solemn melodic line, is, as a whole—and despite passages of burning pain—eloquent of comfort and grace. It is a single sound of heartfelt and exalted feelings, in which the whole giant structure finds its culmination.”
William Ritter: "Perhaps the greatest Adagio written since Beethoven." (in his review of the 1902 premiere)
An anonymous critic from the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung: "It rises to heights which situate this movement among the most sublime in all symphonic literature.”
Originally, critics and preview audiences had heard only three movements of the symphony (the second, third, and sixth movements) and many complained that the Adagio was too long. Mahler then fretted, what would they think of the first movement which is over a half hour long?! As we can see, the proper premiere erased all concerns: according to the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Mahler was called back to the podium 12 times, and a newspaper reported that “the thunderous ovation lasted no less than fifteen minutes.” Really reminds me of the Dudamel BBC Proms performance of the Second Symphony I referenced last week!
Thematically and visually, the ending of the Third is similar to the finale of the Eighth Symphony “Symphony of a Thousand” – perhaps we can look at the finale there in the Eighth as a mature revisitation of the finale here in the Third? Also, with the themes of struggle and overcoming and redemption, the ending of his Second Symphony looms large here too.
Spoiler Alert! Once you hear this, you can’t unhear it: it seems that the second motif in this movement bears a striking resemblance to the melody of the song “I’ll Be Seeing You” – was Sammy Fain a secret Mahler fan and noticed some thematic connection between the two pieces?
Aborted Seventh Movement: As mentioned before, “The Heavenly Life” or alternatively, "What the Child Tells Me" was planned as the final and seventh movement for the symphony, but Mahler cut it and it ended up as the final movement of the Fourth symphony instead. We hear melodies from this movement in the Fifth Movement, all part of Mahler’s great foreshadowing of motifs from later movements.
Next week is the last of the Wunderhorn era symphonies, his Fourth Symphony, and with that, I’ll be taking a break before tackling the symphonies of his Middle Period. In case you haven’t heard the Third, you can see these two performances of the final movement: Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Philharmonia Orchestra or Leonard Bernstein with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
And links to my preferred recordings:
- Bernard Haitink, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Decca
- Sir Georg Solti, LSO, Decca
- Simon Rattle, City of Birmingham Symphony, EMI
- Dimitri Mitropoulos, NYP, Live 1956
- Leonard Bernstein, NYP, Columbia
- Leonard Bernstein, NYP, Deutsche Grammophon
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