The Third Symphony by Gustav Mahler was written during the summers of 1895 and 1896 in his small composition hut on the lake Attersee near Steinbach in Upper Austria.
As the first movement took shape, Mahler confided in his friend, Natalie Bauer-Lechner, that “It has almost ceased to be music”. it is hardly anything but sounds of nature. I could equally well have called the movement “What the mountain tells me”—it’s eerie, the way life gradually breaks through, out of soul-less, rigid matter. And, as this life rises from stage to stage, it takes on ever more highly developed forms: flowers, beasts, man, up to the sphere of the spirits, the “angels.”
Over the introduction to this movement, there lies again that atmosphere of brooding summer midday heat; not a breath stirs, all life is suspended, and the sun-drenched air trembles and vibrates. At intervals there come the moans of the youth—that is, captive life—struggling for release from the clutches of lifeless, rigid Nature. At last he breaks through and triumphs.
Mahler eventually discarded the program outlining this hierarchical journey to the divine. Indeed, the pure dramatic force of this music transcends any literal meaning. At the same time, Mahler’s program may help unfamiliar listeners gain entrance to this awe-inspiring work.
Here is the final movement of this amazing symphony, as conducted by Leonard Bernstein:
