# Mahler Symphony No2



## dexy (Apr 13, 2011)

Hello, 

first post...

Reason being I've just discovered Mahler's Symphony No2.

I've been listening to classical music for a number of years; however it's been quite some time since I've come across something 'new'. It is strange that I've known Mahler's 1st and 5th symphonies very well for some time.This evening for some reason I thought I should get to know more of Mahler's music. 

So off I went to spotify...

I was literally reduced to tears at the extra-ordinary beauty of the symphony - the fourth movement is incredible!

Just felt the need to share!


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Welcome!

There are many here who would second your assessment of Mahler 2. If you look in the Orchestral Music section, there is a sticky thread showing the Talk Classical (TC) top 150 symphonies. Mahler 2 came in second. In the Classical Music Discussion section you will see a thread called "the classical music project". Mahler 2 was the 8th work selected. These lists of course represent voting by a relatively small group of TC members.

I too knew some of Mahler's other symphonies (1,4,5,9) and only came to Mahler 2 much later. I'm not sure why I was surprised to find it so beautiful. I guess it's always a joy to find a new piece of music that moves you so much. After listening to classical music for awhile the new finds are fewer and farther between.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Welcome! Mahler 2 is very dear to my heart as well. My dream is to be in a performance of it.


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## World Violist (May 31, 2007)

Yes, I think Mahler 2 is actually the best introduction to Mahler, despite what people say about 1 and 4. I just feel that it's more "pure Mahler" than either of the others. The whole piece is devastating in its impact.


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

I find myself in a similar situation as the original poster: just discovered Mahler #2, and I'm spellbound by it - and yes, I'm using Spotify as well. For months I tried to "get" Mahler, and it was a long and arduous road. His symphony #7 opened the "doors of perception" for me, and now I'm turning into a Mahler-fan(/atic). In fact, I was listening to Mahler #2 when I saw this thread.

I really like how Mahler seems to problematizise (is that a word?) everything. Nothing is "pure" in his music. Everything is tainted with questions, doubts and double meanings - tainted with modernity or subjectivity, we might say. He doesn't give us simple answers. This multiplicity, this "Vielheit" reminds me of Wagner, while Mahler's commitment to the development and heroic drama of the symphony, manifested in the dialectic of the movements, reminds me of Beethoven. And let's face it, if a composer successfully combines Beethoven with Wagner, I'll be a believer.

I'm not that much of a fan of vocal sections in symphonies - if I hear a human voice in music, I want it to emanate from a human character, like in opera - not from an impersonal singer, an author's voice who tries to explain the inexplicaple. In Mahler's defense, the vocal sections are rather short, and they really work towards the "Gesamtkunstwerk" that he's aiming for. His symphonies are philosophical dramas, after all, so a couple of words do clarify things (although more often than not, they just muddle things all the more, and I'm quite sure that he intended it that way).

Of all Mahler's symphonies, maybe #2 is the most dramatic in the classical, Beethovenian sense at least, if we consider the symphony as a whole. That's why it's so great. We are holding our breath as if watching a romantic, heroic drama - or a horror film. We're always in the present, feeling our hero's emotions right now. Some other Mahler symphonies seem to sort of distort the flow of time, so that the audience's vantage point becomes much more complicated. But it's the classical drama of the #2 that really grips us in the present, addressing our brain through our heart, perhaps, as opposed to addressing out heart through our brain.

The bottom line is, I really love this symphony.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I love it, even though I think the 4th and 9th are even better. For me, Mahler's 2nd is the first symphony that really successfully integrated the human voice with the symphony orchestra.


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## Guest (Apr 14, 2011)

This has got to be one of my top classical pieces - period. The Urlicht movement is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard, when performed well. The whole thing is incredible. I have multiple recordings of this one, in my search for the one that I love the most. I still keep going back to Klemperer's live recording on EMI.

Great find for you. Glad you have also discovered this incredible work.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

It's a fantastic work. Although I love them all the 2nd forms a personal Holy Trinity with the 6th and 9th.


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## the_emptier (Jan 27, 2011)

The 2nd is incredible. Yes that last movement, the choir gets me every time


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