‘Symphony no. 2’ by Gustav Mahler is a piece for an enormous orchestra with a choir, and it features one of the greatest endings in all music. Its sheer scale and intensity is astonishing: this music creates a universe. In this episode I share insights into the piece and I discuss how an orchestra’s conviction can create thrilling performances.

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Hi! My name’s Scott Wilson. I’m a conductor and I’m passionate about classical music. In this podcast we discover the music of one of our greatest artforms. We listen to a new piece in each episode, I share insights into the music, and over time, I’ll take you on a journey through classical music’s composers, musicians, and history. Everything’s discussed in an easily digestible way, and no prior knowledge is needed. This podcast is for you!

Today we’re listening to ‘Symphony no. 2’ by the composer Gustav Mahler. This piece is for an enormous orchestra with a choir, and it features one of the greatest endings in all music. The sheer volume and intensity of the sound is astonishing. I hope you enjoy it!

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When I think of the composer Mahler, I think of someone who doesn’t just create a world with his music, but who creates a universe. He writes for a huge orchestra and choir and takes the listener on a slowly unfolding journey towards an epic ending. In today’s podcast we’ll listen only to the final few minutes of this symphony. Given that the entire piece lasts ninety minutes, this is perhaps the best way to begin to get to know it. Though we’ll be hearing the climax out of context, it’s still possible to be blown away by this incredible music.

So, we’re towards the end of the fifth and final movement of Mahler’s ‘Symphony no. 2’. A soprano and a mezzo soprano have joined the orchestra and choir singing as soloists. We’ll hear their last few words, and then the low male voices - the basses in the choir - enter. Listen to the music rolling forwards; excitement seems to be building. It’s a cue to the audience: the ending you’ve been waiting for is coming!

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This beautiful, flowing melody’s going to be heard over and over. It’s being passed around the orchestra, galvanising everyone on stage. The pitch rises with each new entrance of the melody: we’re being taken upwards to the climax.

When we rejoin the music now, we’ll hear the last few swells of this melody. And then we arrive at the ending proper. Listen as the orchestra opens up, releasing the fullness of its sound.

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This music was imagined by the composer Gustav Mahler in the early 1890s. Mahler would set aside his summers to compose in his composition hut. This tiny building sat adjacent to a lake on the land of his summer house in the Austrian countryside. It contained only a chair, table, stove, and a piano. Mahler had to block out time for composition because he was one of the leading conductors in Europe. Sometimes he’d conduct in excess of 100 performances a year. Not only was he too busy to compose regularly, when his works were performed they often weren’t well received. Nonetheless, Mahler eventually became recognised as one of our most important composers. His music is now performed by all orchestras across the world.

Let’s pick it up again. An audience member hearing this for the first time would probably think we’ve arrived at the climax. However, we’re just getting going. Listen now as the music builds even further.

[music excerpt]

Did you hear that? The incredible broadening of the sound at that newest high point was the entrance of the organ! The organist sits there for nearly 90 minutes only to play at the very end of this piece. It was the only remaining instrument that could build upon the enormous sound of the orchestra and choir. And actually, it’s quite hard to appreciate this effect on a recording. The breadth of sound at this moment is so great that it’s difficult to capture via microphones and replicate via speakers. Of course, I hope you’ll one day hear this piece performed live! The sound is truly overwhelming!

And two or three hundred individuals on stage committing to every note in every moment creates magic. The conviction of an entire orchestra and choir can move us. In performance, we can literally see the musicians giving their all: there’s the physicality of playing the instruments, there’s the intellectual challenge of reading and performing the sheet music, and there’s the team-work of all of these individuals pulling together in the same direction. And the aural result? Well, it has bite.

So, we’re following on from the previous episode where we began looking at what it is that makes a performance thrilling. In this episode I’m highlighting how the conviction of an entire orchestra can lead to thrilling performances. Conviction creates a kind of grit in a performance: the musicians dig in to the music and play with intensity. And you can hear this quality in the performance we’re listening to today. The collective conviction in this performance is able to convey something deep and elemental. Though powerful emotions are expressed through the music itself, the musicians’ sheer commitment to this performance makes it electrifying for the listener.

And we’re listening to a highly trained group of individuals. Each member of the orchestra and choir has come to the piece with their own ideas, experiences, musical skills and strengths. To somehow create unity out of so many different people is an astonishing feat. In the next episode I’ll discuss orchestral virtuosity, part of which involves the ability of an orchestra to come together and play ‘as one’. But, as you’ll hear in this next excerpt, there’s something being created here that’s more than just all playing together or all following a conductor. Also, it’s more than just the pitches and rhythms written by the composer. Part of the reason this performance is thrilling is because you can hear the conviction of every single person on the stage.

Let’s continue on. Listen to the conviction of these musicians.

[music excerpt]

This is a piece that captivates listeners; and there’s no doubt that the ending is some of the greatest music ever composed. This is why the manuscript - meaning, the composer’s original hand-written sheet music - achieved the highest price ever paid for a musical score when it was auctioned in 2016. The 232 pages of black ink on paper achieved a price of £4.5 million pounds. It’s quite unbelievable! But there really is something incredible about this piece: this music affects us.

In that last excerpt the mass of sound seemed to arrive at a climactic plateau. And yet, towards the end there was a kind of thrust forward. Listen again. Where could this music possibly be taking us now?

[music excerpt]

In those two forward thrusts, you can sense that there’s still something being held back in this piece. And that’s just it, unbelievably we haven’t yet reached the climax! As well as I know the piece, that fact never ceases to amaze me. It’s hard to comprehend how the music could grow even further.

We’ll listen now. You’ll hear that the orchestra has gone quiet: the choir is heard almost alone. But over the course of the following twenty seconds the music grows to the point of ultimate tension and excitement in this piece. The loudest chord - the one where the sopranos sing super high - is held longer than any previous ones. Every ounce of intensity is tightened in this moment. And at the point where the listener can’t take any more, the music releases. We float down from the summit.

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There aren’t many pieces like this one: only a few create this level of impact. Compositions like these seem to go beyond what’s usually possible. It even appeared this way to Mahler! Of his Second Symphony he wrote: ‘The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don’t know … how I ever came to write it.’ Of course, these pieces that glimpse beyond the possible are only ever created by the very greatest composers, and even then, infrequently. In addition, they’re the pieces that demand the most from performers, and which require a grand vision from a conductor. They’re what I refer to as ‘event pieces’: pieces that are epic in nature, and that require vast resources.

It’s not only an orchestra, it’s a considerably expanded one. A performance of this piece requires about twice as many woodwind, brass, and percussion players compared to normal, with some of them located off-stage, so they can be heard at a distance. Those off-stage musicians have their own conductor, and an additional conductor would usually prepare the large choir for performance. It’s a third conductor that takes responsibility for the performance as a whole and leads the on-stage musicians. In addition to the more than one hundred in the orchestra and possibly twice that number in the choir, there’s two solo singers. And just when the walls aren’t quite shaking enough, the organ - played by two hands and two feet - enters to immerse the concert hall in sound. 

In previous episodes I’ve discussed the different types of pieces that orchestras play. But in the episode where I discussed symphonies, I didn’t include pieces like this one. Though Mahler called this piece ‘Symphony no. 2’, in so many ways it’s different to what you might call a ‘normal’ symphony. Performances of pieces like this are nothing short of events. They are major artistic undertakings for the performers, they hold special significance within an orchestra’s concert series, and they are likely to be the most cherished by the audience. And why is all this worth it? Well, these pieces - event pieces, as I call them - provide perhaps the greatest opportunity in music to experience the very best of humanity. Just the sound alone of a huge orchestra combined with a choir is one of the most incredible human achievements.

We’ll listen one more time to that incredible music: the few seconds leading up to the climax of Mahler’s ‘Symphony no. 2’. And following the climax, in the distant background you’ll hear a percussionist playing church bells. It’s a theatrical moment from the composer. He’s imagining that a performance of this piece is an event extending beyond the concert hall to the surrounding towns and villages.

[music excerpt]

Could you hear the music unwinding? It’s the necessary release of tension following ninety minutes of music. The listener needs time to celebrate and to digest the emotional drama that was built during that time. Just as the music began from a point of rest, it’s now returning to that point of rest. A full minute is dedicated to this unwinding process. 

Listen to how the orchestra takes its final deep breath. Following several slow, heavy footsteps by the timpani, you’ll hear the trumpet lead the orchestra as it inhales and exhales. For me, this is a moment of orchestral exhaustion.

[music excerpt]

And following that final breath, we hear the sound of pride and fulfilment. If the performance has been paced well by the conductor, the audience will feel this moment of contentment too. And in all likelihood, any performance you see will have been well directed. This piece is typically the preserve of the very greatest conductors: the Music Directors of the world’s leading orchestras.

Let’s listen to the final few gestures from the orchestra. It’s the music of a grand achievement: you can hear the satisfied sighing of the brass instruments. Surrounding the orchestra you’ll hear two tam-tams - which are large, unpitched gongs. They seem to convey the immensity of the universe that’s been created by Mahler.

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I hope you’ve been wowed by this music. I suggest taking a listen to the entirety of the final movement of Mahler’s ‘Symphony no. 2’. Perhaps just start a few minutes from the end, and then, with each listen, go back several more minutes. Or, begin from the start of the movement. Whichever way you decide to explore it is valid. It’s music on a vast scale, and it takes time to discover. But, this epic piece - Mahler’s ‘Symphony no. 2’ - is worth it!

Thank you for being with me for another episode of A Thousand Pictures. If you have questions or would like to make a suggestion of a piece or topic for a future episode, please get in touch via social media or email feedback@athousandpictures.com. Further information, a link to the recording featured in today’s podcast, and suggestions about what to listen to next can be found at athousandpictures.com. Or subscribe to our email list and you’ll receive this information directly to your inbox.

Today we’ve been listening to the fifth movement from ‘Symphony no. 2’ composed by Gustav Mahler. I recommend the recording by the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simone Young.

And finally, please subscribe, please rate and review, and please share this podcast with others. Your support is valuable and it’s appreciated: together we can create a community which celebrates classical music! Now go and listen to this wonderful piece, and get out there and hear a performance by your local orchestra!

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