Classical Music | Orchestral Music

Recorded on 10/25/1990, uploaded on 12/24/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Standing alongside both Beethoven’s and Brahms’s symphonic inaugurations as one of the greatest first symphonies in classical music, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 is a colossal work, sometimes seen with the aptly appropriate subtitle “Titan,” that only foreshadows the brobdingnagian symphonies he would produce later on. Much of the symphony was composed during 1887-88. However, Mahler incorporated some music that he had composed earlier, most notably two melodies from his song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, but also an 1883 piece named Blumen, which was later cut from the work altogether. Mahler frequently referred to the piece as a “symphony” while he was working on it. Curiously, however, when the work premiered in Budapest in 1889, and when later performed in Hamburg in 1893, Mahler presented the work as a two-part symphonic poem, complete with a descriptive programme of the composer’s own invention.  In these early performances, the first two movements of the symphony as it is now known, with the inclusion of Blumen after the first movement, formed the first part, while the funeral march and the expansive finale formed the second. Following the Hamburg performance, Mahler removed Blumen, establishing the work’s now-familiar four movement structure. Interestingly, he did not remove the traces of the movement’s melodies which can be found in the succeeding movements. Once cut, Blumen remained lost until its discovery in 1966, and there have since been several recordings of the symphony with its reinstatement between the first and second movements. Mahler continued to revise the symphony before its publication in 1898, including the removal of the descriptive programme and the “Titan” subtitle.

With faint echoes of Beethoven’s Ninth, Mahler’s First Symphony opens with sustained tones and an eerily descending theme in the key of D minor. Imitations of the cuckoo are heard in the clarinets, reminding one of the original programme Mahler had supplied to accompany the work, and eventually the movement’s principal theme, borrowed from his song cycle, emerges with Spring-like joviality. Again with a nod to the innovations of Beethoven, Mahler follows the first movement not with a slow movement, but instead a scherzo-like movement in the style of the Austrian Länder, a precursor to the waltz. The playful tune announced at the outset of the movement dominates the outer sections, and is contrasted by a more lyrical trio.

The funeral march third movement opens with the famous double bass solo, one of the few instances of the instrument being used in such a manner, playing the tune “Frère Jacques” in the key of D minor. The theme is taken up by the other bass instruments, and eventually by the entire orchestra itself. Later, Mahler also incorporates another melody from Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. The movement then concludes softly, with alternating fourths that echo the theme of the first movement. Following this quiet close, the expansive finale, beginning in the unconventional key of F minor, opens with a violent crash from the orchestra, somewhat suggestive of the opening of the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth. Further drawing reference to that immortal work, Mahler proceeds to revisit themes from the earlier movements during the course of the work. Utilizing a wealth of material, the finale alternates between the dramatic theme of the opening and more lyrical material, including a restatement of the theme from Blumen. The finale eventually obtains a triumphant D major, and with fanfares borrowed the first movement, the symphony comes to a triumphant, and somewhat comical, conclusion.        Joseph DuBose

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