Mahler's Symphony Number 5

Gustav Mahler is often known for his often brash conducting style and wildly serious nature in rehearsal. It carries over to much of his compositional work. Symphony Number 5 tends to be a bit less of the bombastic nature that accompanied his other work. Although, there is a ton of whirling color swimming around in the orchestral sea of the first movement to make one’s head spin. It captures the beautiful craziness that is the last gasp of the late Romantic period. The whole tapestry in the middle of the first movement is swirling like wild sirens in the night as if insanity of the mind won’t stop. Then, enter the golden trumpets and the pungent lower brass swarming in with a bang. This fever of activity subsides with the somewhat typical melodic fanfare that is often a bit of filler in some orchestral circles. This culminates in a sudden climbing explosion of brass that is like a collision in the dead of night. The trumpet still stands and so does the flute. This concludes the first movement. The first movement has a striking A minor augmented feel that is rushing like the thrust of an oncoming train on a once-deserted track. All the color is astounding—and this is what is on the composer’s mind. What audiences really get when they hear a composer’s music is pieces of the composer’s inner most emotions and mind and how beautiful that mind is. The strings come in as a syrupy wash that gives us strains of beauty that should be heard evermore. The richness of the strings is not understated but helped by the brass and ensuing chromatic woodwinds. Then, A minor comes back and that train-like pace ensues again. The second movement ends with a more chaotic version of the beautiful ballet-style theme we heard earlier. The other ensuing movements have a magical fleeting character as though it were a waltz—a sweet display of form for the rest of the piece. Mahler—truly a composer to behold and cling to.