Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection”

Composer: MAHLER, Gustav
  • Mahler composed this symphony between 1888-1894, and revised the work in 1903. The first complete performance of the symphony took place on December 13, 1895 in Berlin.1 Mahler conducted the Berlin SO in this performance.2
  • The symphony’s fourth and fifth movements include voices. 
    • Mvt. 4, “Urlicht,” uses a text from the German folk poetry collection, Des knaben Wunderhorn. (Mahler’s orchestral song cycle of that name sets many poems from the collection, including “Urlicht” again).  
    • Mvt. 5, “In tempos des Scherzos,” sets texts by poet Friedrich Gottfried Klopstock and by Mahler. Mahler discovered this poem by Klopstock when it was sung at the funeral of Hans von Bülow.3
  • This page includes both the full text of the vocal portions of the symphony, and the program notes Mahler wrote for a 1901 performance in Dresden. 

Sources

  1. Peter Franklin, “Mahler, Gustav,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 23, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040696.
  2. “Symphony No. 2 (Mahler, Gustav),” IMSLP, accessed March 23, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.2_(Mahler%2C_Gustav). 
  3. Peter Franklin, “Mahler, Gustav,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 23, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040696.

Cut IDs

13562 12396 23954 10325 13111 15464 10325 15303 13707