Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Marianne Beate Kielland
Oslo Filharmoniske Kor Gustav Mahler

“A symphony is like a world - it must contain everything,” Gustav Mahler said to his colleague Jean Sibelius in 1907. None of Mahler’s symphonies is closer to this ideal than Symphony No. 3, which, with its six movements and a total duration of about a hundred minutes, is Mahler’s longest. 

In 1895, he expressed the same idea to Natalie Bauer-Lechner during the work with Symphony No. 3: “... for me, «symphony» means constructing a world with all the technical means at one’s disposal. The eternally new and changing content determines its own form.”

Mahler changed a lot in the symphony up until its premiere in 1902—among other things, the movement titles, which he eventually removed completely. But the working titles have been a joy for posterity since they give an insight into Mahler’s sources of inspiration for the music. 

“Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In” was the name he gave the first movement. The working titles suggest ascent:

• What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me.

• What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me.

• What the Man Tells Me.

• What the Angels Tell Me.

• What Love Tells Me. 

The first movement lasts half an hour and is almost like a symphony in itself. The second and third movements are shorter and lighter in form. In the fourth movement the soloist sings lyrics from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra. In the fight movement, the soloist is accompanied by a “choir of angels” (women’s choir and boy’s choir). The last movement is a slow Adagio where Mahler’s world is gathered in a peaceful ending.