Some recommended recordings: Leonard Bernstein gives a great performance with the New York Philharmonic on Columbia with Reri Grist (one of the first famous Black classical music singers) and he captures the playfulness of the symphony well here, in contrast with what I now consider ponderous, lumbering performances of the Third Symphony. Then we have Bernstein and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Helmut Wittek (boy soprano!), produced during his Deutsche Grammophon cycle, is actually pretty good: the tempi sound spot on and the twenty years of experience has made a positive difference here. Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Lisa Della Casa on RCA Living Stereo has a very good first movement performance, which really captures the Haydn-like feel of it, almost better than Bernstein – the recording is great throughout. And if you want history, we have Wilhelm Mengelberg and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jo Vincent on Philips, a vintage live 1939 recording. Mengelberg heard Mahler rehearse and perform this and other symphonies and saw his original conducting notes as well.
We now come to my first symphony without the Embrace Everything podcast as a crunch to guide my critical commentary. So below is what I could piece together from my ears, wikipedia, and Bernstein’s commentary on the first, third, and fourth movements. It was savaged by audiences and critics alike at the time, but it is also his most accessible. Why? Because it's a short symphony? It's like saying we have to trim “The Odyssey” down because it's too long and folks won't enjoy it. I am not swayed. This is not my favorite Mahler symphony, but it has grown on me as I have done my preparatory listening and studying. It was originally planned to have six movements, including “Das irdische Leben” “The Earthly Life” another Wunderhorn song (one version sung by immortal Mahler interpreter Christa Ludwig and another live version by a Baritone)
Die Welt als ewige Jetztzeit (The World as Eternal Now)
Das irdische Leben (The Earthly Life)
Caritas – Adagio
Morgenglocken (Morning Bells)
Die Welt ohne Schwere (The World Without Gravity) – Scherzo
Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life)
Only the first and last movements would survive in the final version of the Fourth. Morgenlocken would become the Fifth Movement of the Third Symphony “Es sungen drei Engel” – compare that with the aborted “Das irdische Leben” movement which sings about starving indigent children! It’s also been said that the scherzo movement was held back for the Fifth Symphony (more on the links to the Fifth later) and the Adagio is not the same piece music that we would later receive as the final Third Movement. His notes for this six movement symphony suggest he would have named the symphony “Humoresque,” after a five song cycle that included “The Heavenly Life”
As I have said, I am not the biggest fan: the first movement is catchy but not as likeable as it could be, and I prefer his vocal movements in the Second and Third Symphonies compared to his finale here (though I do like the darker moments, of course). Though I have begun to appreciate the complex thematic development and recapitulation here – it is very subtle and I have only caught it on my subsequent listening sessions. Let’s dive into the body of work itself:
First Movement: In sonata form, it opens with a flute, strings, and sleigh bell part that leads to our first motif. It has a strong neoclassical style: the melody and form reminds me of Haydn or as Bernstein would say, Mozart. Then we hear the second main “nostalgia/child” motif of the movement and There is something very stately about how this second motif opens. I visualize a musical interpretation of domestic life. Domesticity is written all over it. The movement speeds up, brassy and boisterous as the motives are developed further. I hear a march or especially rhythmic beat unlike much of his other music, where tempo is unclear. This movement is almost childlike in its emotional swings: If you remember Mahler is a middle aged manchild not in control of his emotions and prone to melodramatic outbursts, it makes sense that this would only connect more as we get older and find a link to the emotivism of this music to our past life experiences. As we hear one of the development sections, out of nowhere comes a trumpet trill that is a snippet of what would be reused and become the trumpet-led opening motif to the trauermarsch from the Fifth Symphony! Mahler named it “the little call to order” here. This won’t be the last link to the Fifth Symphony, especially if he appropriated the scherzo for it. I’ve been appreciating this movement more as I finally hear how Mahler is performing a number of wide-ranging variations on the themes he introduces. We have a slightly quiet passage before Maler brings us home with a playful upbeat recapitulation and then ending.
Second Movement: The scherzo. It opens with a spindrily string part. Perhaps we’re witnessing Death here, in contrast with heaven at the end of the symphony? Alma Mahler said that Mahler was inspired by the painting “Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle” by the Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin. This movement reminds me of some other musical piece, Mahler or otherwise, with the winding violin part offset by woodwinds and brass interjections. Maybe it’s Mahler’s Seventh Symphony nachtmusik, or the middle purgatorio/descent sections from the Tenth Symphony sketches? There is a winding menacing part but interspersed with lighter, frolicky sounding parts. The middle section is dreamier and almost sounds reminiscent of his Second and Third Symphonies. Almost Richard Strauss like (which wouldn’t be surprising since they were contemporaries and colleagues).
Third Movement. Double theme and variations, poco adagio. It begins with a solemn and stately main theme that transitions into glacial strings and a very emotive swell. Then we move into a more upbeat minuet-like section. After this has played out, the movement takes a sadder emotional turn and takes us back to the sadder motif near the opening, with wailing strings. This leads into a variation that, only now I can see, is clearly developing the second motif from the First Movement with the previous minuet section! Then we have a grand brass and string outburst that is one of the more memorable parts; it has a real driving force. Next, we move into a string/harp part to close out the movement that sounds vaguely like “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” “O garish world, long since thou hast lost me” (sung by Magdalena Kožena with Claudio Abbado at the Lucerne Festival), one of the Rückert-Lieder, which would be composed only a year or so after this symphony. In my opinion, I had not thought the middle two movements of this symphony to be very memorable, but they have since grown on me, though not to the level of his other symphonies. Maybe the variation work is too subtle to give us memorable melodies.
Fourth Movement. This movement was originally supposed to be the Seventh Movement finale (!!) to his Third Symphony and instead he held it back to be the finale here – “Das himmlische Leben” “The Heavenly Life” from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn.” It’s sung by a soprano, and whether here or in the previous symphony, we see how this caps off the tetralogy, with the subject of the symphonies finally reaching heaven.
We revel in heavenly pleasures,
Leaving all that is earthly behind us.
No worldly turmoil
Is heard in heaven;
We all live in sweetest peace.
We lead an angelic existence,
And so we are perfectly happy.
We dance and leap,
And skip and sing;
Saint Peter in Heaven looks on.
I am not such a fan of the opening motif, it is too saccharine for me, but I do like the languid part (this is quoted in the Third Symphony somewhere) and which is followed by a frenzied section that kicks off with the sleigh bells again! As you can see, if this is heaven, all is not completely ideal here, with animals being slaughtered left and right:
Saint John has lost his lambkin,
And butcher Herod is lurking:
We lead a patient,
Guiltless, patient,
Darling lambkin to death.
Saint Luke is slaying the oxen,
Without the least hesitation;
Wine costs not a farthing
In the Heavenly tavern;
The angels bake the bread.
Fine sprouts of every description,
Are growing in Heaven's garden.
Fine asparagus, fine herbs,
And all we desire,
Huge platefuls for us are prepared.
Fine apples, fine pears and fine grapes,
The gardeners let us pick freely.
You want venison, hare?
In the open streets
They go running around.
And when there's a holiday near,
All the fishes come joyfully swimming;
And off runs Saint Peter
With net and with bait,
Towards the celestial pond.
Saint Martha will have to be cook!
What is the meaning of the sleigh bells repeated throughout? Are the violin parts a reference to the Second Movement? After some further faster sections with wonderfully versatile singing, the movement becomes more idyllic and pastoral and slower, and our heavenly singer closes out the symphony peacefully – our story has finally found its peaceful end.
There's no music at all on the earth
Which can ever compare with ours.
Eleven thousand virgins
Are set dancing.
Saint Ursula herself laughs to see it!
Cecilia with her companions
Are splendid court musicians.
The angelic voices
Delight the senses,
For all things awake to joy.
And links to my preferred recordings:
Bernstein, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Helmut Wittek, DG
Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Lisa Della Casa, RCA Living Stereo
Wilhelm Mengelberg, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Jo Vincent, Philips, Live 1939
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