During his life, Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911) became known as one of Europe's leading conductors. But he was also one of our foremost composers, although it was always a sideline for him. His oeuvre is also limited, with less than 100 compositions in total, including lieder, opera, chamber music and symphonies. The symphonies are particularly special, especially because Mahler did not hold back on writing for huge orchestras - the winds in particular are always well represented in Mahler's music.
In the summer of 1910, he began composing his 10th symphony, which he never managed to complete or adjust. Many of Mahler's earlier symphonies he had conducted the first performances of and subsequently made adjustments to the music so that his vision for the work was clearer. For good reason, he could not do this with the 10th, but music philologists and other experts have subsequently finalised the symphony. The movement Mahler got furthest with was the first, the Adagio, which we'll take a closer look at below.
The movement begins with a slow solo played by the violas:
The solo continues for another full minute before we are presented with the first theme play in the violins of the movement:
The theme continues and is complemented by horns, and soon the flutes take over and turn the theme upside down: the rhythm is maintained, but instead of the melody moving up-up-down, it is now down-down-up:
Soon after, Mahler introduces us to another, slightly lighter and faster theme played in the violins:
Mahler isn't quite finished with it, however, but plays with this theme a little further. He changes the accompaniment and lets the melody switch between violin and cello:
We then return to the viola solo that opened the movement:
This is followed by a longer elaboration of both the first and second themes, which are moved around and varied. But after almost ten minutes of increasing intensity and massiveness in the sound, something happens: suddenly the power disappears and we are left with a theme in the violin that is a variation on the viola solo:
The silence is almost total... but then Mahler kicks in with the full force of the orchestra, in one of the most surprising and powerful shifts of tonality heard in a long time:
We are almost blown away and although the massiveness is not maintained throughout, Mahler shows us possibly the most beautiful version of the second theme from the movement:
We've almost reached the last part of the movement, but we're presented with a final, massive chord where a trumpet suddenly cuts through, holding its note almost inhumanly long. Like a scream, the strings cut into it, but the trumpet is unwavering:
Only when the trumpet is completely finished, heralding the shift back to the original tonality, can we hear one last beautiful melody in the violins:
The movement is now slowly fading out, Mahler has reached the climax of the stasis and completed his last work.