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Symphony No. 5
The expansive emotional expressions and monumental musical designs of Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) brought the Romantic era in music to its climax. A remarkable figure who strove for the highest perfection in his works, Mahler created a rare union of musical and spiritual expression.
The composer's nine symphonies (a tenth was left unfinished) feature unique melodic and tonal structures calling for vast orchestral resources. His Fifth Symphony, reproduced here from an authoritative edition, has enjoyed undiminished popularity for nearly a century. According to the New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians , the Fifth "illustrates the kind of fresh and convincing formal solutions Mahler found … when he confronted instead the challenges and disciplines of the purely instrumental symphony." In this work, moreover, the composer turned toward an "orchestral sound embodying a more vivid string presence," as evidenced by the beautiful and well-known Adagietto movement.
This profound and moving symphony is presented here in full score with bar-numbered movements. Ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall, this affordable, high-quality, conveniently sized volume will be the edition of choice for music students and music lovers alike.
The composer's nine symphonies (a tenth was left unfinished) feature unique melodic and tonal structures calling for vast orchestral resources. His Fifth Symphony, reproduced here from an authoritative edition, has enjoyed undiminished popularity for nearly a century. According to the New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians , the Fifth "illustrates the kind of fresh and convincing formal solutions Mahler found … when he confronted instead the challenges and disciplines of the purely instrumental symphony." In this work, moreover, the composer turned toward an "orchestral sound embodying a more vivid string presence," as evidenced by the beautiful and well-known Adagietto movement.
This profound and moving symphony is presented here in full score with bar-numbered movements. Ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall, this affordable, high-quality, conveniently sized volume will be the edition of choice for music students and music lovers alike.
- GenresScores
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1985
6 people want to read
About the author
Gustav Mahler
540 books30 followersGustav Mahler was a late-Romantic composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born to a Jewish family in the village of Kalischt in Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. His family later moved to nearby Iglau (now Jihlava), where Mahler grew up.
As a composer, Mahler acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became a frequently performed and recorded composer, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.
Mahler's oeuvre is relatively small; for much of his life composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Aside from early works such as a movement from a piano quartet composed when he was a student in Vienna, Mahler's works are designed for large orchestral forces, symphonic choruses and operatic soloists. Most of his twelve symphonic scores are very large-scale works, often employing vocal soloists and choruses in addition to augmented orchestral forces. These works were often controversial when first performed, and several were slow to receive critical and popular approval; exceptions included his Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 3, and the triumphant premier of his Eighth Symphony in 1910. Some of Mahler's immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composer's life and work.
As a composer, Mahler acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became a frequently performed and recorded composer, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.
Mahler's oeuvre is relatively small; for much of his life composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Aside from early works such as a movement from a piano quartet composed when he was a student in Vienna, Mahler's works are designed for large orchestral forces, symphonic choruses and operatic soloists. Most of his twelve symphonic scores are very large-scale works, often employing vocal soloists and choruses in addition to augmented orchestral forces. These works were often controversial when first performed, and several were slow to receive critical and popular approval; exceptions included his Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 3, and the triumphant premier of his Eighth Symphony in 1910. Some of Mahler's immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955 to honour the composer's life and work.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 15, 2022
Studied and listened obsessively in fall of 2022, in anticipation of a fine performance by the Fox Valley Symphony in Wisconsin. The performance did not disappoint. Look forward to visiting with this piece again some time in the future, after an appropriate cooling-off period.
June 20, 2024
Releida y rehecha una nueva grabación de la quinta de Mahler, esta vez según la nueva edición de 2002, que presenta curiosas variaciones de instrumentación con respecto a otras ediciones.
Grande.
Grande.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews