Symphony No. 5

• Mahler began work on this symphony in 1901, during the first summer which he spent at his little summer villa on the Wörthersee.¹
• Mahler met, courted and married Alma Schindler while he was writing this symphony. Mahler reported that he sent the score of this symphony’s Adagietto to Alma Schindler as a kind of love letter.²
• Mahler completed the first version of this symphony in 1902, and revised it multiple times between 1904-1911.³
• This symphony premiered in Cologne on October 18, 1904. Mahler conducted the Gurzenich Concert Orchestra in this performance.⁴

Mahler structured this symphony in three parts and five movements:⁵

Part I 
1. Trauermarsch (Funeral March) 
2. Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz (Stormy emotion, with great vehemence) 
Part II 
3. Scherzo 
Part III 
4. Adagietto 
5. Rondo-Finale 

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. 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.
3. “Symphony No.5 (Mahler, Gustav),” IMSLP, accessed March 23, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.5_(Mahler%2C_Gustav).
4. “Symphony No.5 (Mahler, Gustav),” IMSLP, accessed March 23, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.5_(Mahler%2C_Gustav).
5. “Symphony No.5 (Mahler, Gustav),” IMSLP, accessed March 23, 2021, https://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.5_(Mahler%2C_Gustav).