Mahler - Symphony no.5

Has there been any composer who wrote a bad fifth symphony? I can’t think of any. In 1901, Mahler had to be briefly hospitalized for intestinal problems [nothing serious], and as a get well present one of his friends got him the score of a new edition of Bach’s cantatas. Looking through Bach’s scores, Mahler was enthralled by the master’s ability to thread melodies together. The counterpoint was so impressive and influential, he gained a new interesest in writing absolute music, instead of writing programatic symphonies with extra-musical ideas. His next three symphonies would be purely instrumental, save the programatic title of the seventh [but even then, the seventh only holds an evocative title and nothing more]. The fifth is in three parts, and opens with a horn call, the “Fate” pattern of Beethoven’s fifth, a nod to that composer, but at the same time a nod to his previous symphony [the same passage in the same key can be heard a little more than half way through the first movement of the fourth], and we are thrown into a dark and deep funeral march, contrasting between a languid pace and a dramatic wind flourish. The middle section throws us into a storm with a bouncy rhythm, and near the end of the music, everything trails off beyond the horizon. The next movement is another stormy scherzo, that tosses around a bit and holds up the weight of the first “part”. In the second half of the scherzo, a new theme is introduced, a heroic one, light coming out of the darkness, that builds up and up before falling away in a let down, and slipping back into the roughness of the scherzo’s main theme. This heroic theme is alluding to the eventual heroic climax of the entire piece. The second part is the third movement, another scherzo, but instead of darkness, there is sunshine. It sounds like music from mountain climbers, a waltz or ländler. The cheeriness is paired with a bit of a sinister fugato that cuts into the mountain song every now and then. The middle of the movement tones down to an incredible passage on plucked strings. The clashing of Austrian countryside folk music and the upper-middle class Viennese waltz soon cumulates in a gargantuan orchestral explosion that transcends human allusions and nature. It is like standing at the top of a mountain, being overwhelmed by the sun. Before we know it, the music falls back to the charming dances before its happy coda. The third part opens with the fourth movement, the Adagietto that is probably Mahler’s most popular piece, one that is often put in compilation discs of “dinner music” or “classical love” CDs. From listening to it, it’s easy to tell why. The melodies are so beautiful, and the simplified orchestration, strings and harp, create such a passionate work, it’s almost like a poem. Of love, of regret, nostalgia, emotions that are hard to explain that may sometimes scare us. It’s claimed that Mahler wrote it as a love letter to his soon-to-be wife, Alma Schindler, though I don’t know much about the validity of that story. No matter what, it is definitely one of the more gorgeous things Mahler wrote. The last movement opens up quietly, playing around with the key of D, before going into a beautiful pastoral melody. It is then paired with a very complex fugal section, and after a bit of development, the main melody of the Adagietto comes back, this time with added voicing and counterpoint. The music builds up into a fake climax, dies down, and then speeds into the coda, which uses the “heroic” melody from the end of the second movement, and this time pulls through with its promise of grandeur, and sends us into an orchestral climax that feels beyond this earth. Is that getting too much? I really love this symphony, ok? And it’s hard to describe how the music makes me feel when my feelings are over the top. Listen for yourself, see how the music transports you! As Herbert von Karajan said, while listening to the fifth, "you forget that time has passed. A great performance of the Fifth is a transforming experience. The fantastic finale almost forces you to hold your breath.“

Movements:

[Part I]

1. Trauermarsch

2. Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz

[Part II]

3. Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell

[Part III]

4. Adagietto. Sehr langsam

5. Rondo-Finale. Allegro - Allegro giocoso. Frisch