Topic: Favourite parts of Mahler 5?

[Bonehelm]

For me it has got to be the Funeral march movement and the out-of-this-world beautiful Adagietto. For some reason I just don't find the finale very exciting or satisfying, maybe it's because I have only listened to it a few times. But the 4th movement is always soothing no matter when or where I listen to it 

[Symphonien]

Aren't we allowed to like the whole thing?

[Lethevich]

Aren't we allowed to like the whole thing?

You rebel!

[O Delvig]

It's all downhill after the first two minutes. 

[BachQ]

1st mvt

[paulb]

For me it has got to be the Funeral march movement and the out-of-this-world beautiful Adagietto. For some reason I just don't find the finale very exciting or satisfying, maybe it's because I have only listened to it a few times. But the 4th movement is always soothing no matter when or where I listen to it 

good gawd
how many times have i read this about any Mahler sym

"oh i absoluetly love movements  such and such, but not really such movement".
man its all or nothing.

[(poco) Sforzando]

good gawd
how many times have i read this about any Mahler sym

"oh i absoluetly love movements  such and such, but not really such movement".
man its all or nothing.

no its not.

[Grazioso]

It's all downhill after the first two minutes. 

I more or less have to agree, and that's coming from someone who considers Mahler and LvB to be the two greatest traditional symphonists. The work isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but the opening is the best part, and I find a number of his other symphonies much more enjoyable on the whole.

[MojaveJoe]

I agree and would say, by far, the fourth movement (Adagietto - its a 5 mvmt symphony). It is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have ever heard and is probably his most popular work. However, this board voted Shostakovich and Prokofiev over Tchaikovsky so popularity might not hold much water around here 

Cheers!

[Ephemerid]

I enjoy the adagietto, but by and large, I have a very hard time with all the Mahler I've heard.  I've listened to the 5th a few times since I downloaded it (Abbado). 

This is an unfair comment to make, but what I'd like to say is Mahler desperately needed an editor. 

[MojaveJoe]

This is an unfair comment to make, but what I'd like to say is Mahler desperately needed an editor. 

I tend to agree...hope that wasn't blasphemous!

I love the 9th symphony, but I think it would have been even greater with a bit of editing.

Reader's Digest Mahler anyone?

Cheers!

[Benji]

I enjoy the adagietto, but by and large, I have a very hard time with all the Mahler I've heard.  I've listened to the 5th a few times since I downloaded it (Abbado). 

This is an unfair comment to make, but what I'd like to say is Mahler desperately needed an editor. 

I disagree.

"A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything"
Gustav Mahler

Enough said. 

[BachQ]

I love the 9th symphony, but I think it would have been even greater with a bit of editing.

Have at it.  No one is preventing you from unilaterally editing Mahler's score, and thereafter publishing your finished edits for others to perform.

[greg]

I love the 9th symphony, but I think it would have been even greater with a bit of editing.

lol, really? That symphony is one of the only things in the world that actually arrive AT perfection....


as for favorite parts in Mahler 5...... definetely the 1st movement, especially the quieter sections with the subdued death march. It's so mellow and sad 
and of course the start of the development section, with the shrieking expressionism of the violins- that's soul right there!

[BachQ]

lol, really? That symphony is one of the only things in the world that actually arrive AT perfection....


as for favorite parts in Mahler 5...... definetely the 1st movement, especially the quieter sections with the subdued death march. It's so mellow and sad 
and of course the start of the development section, with the shrieking expressionism of the violins- that's soul right there!

1st mvt is awesome

[Danny]

Easily the Adagietto, even if I do love the entire symphony. 

[Sergeant Rock]

1st mvt is awesome

I once took my parents to hear the Fifth (Matthias Bamert and the Cleveland Orchestra). Thinking my mother would like the mellow Adagietto best, I asked her, after the symphony had ended, "Wasn't the slow movement beautiful?" She turned to me and said, "I liked the funeral march better." I was totally shocked! Way to go, Mom!

That said, I have to admit the Scherzo is my favorite part. That is the very heart of the symphony (the Adagietto is a mere interlude really, especially when played the way Mahler probably intended...polished off in eight minutes). But my very favorite bit of the Fifth is the appearance of the great chorale theme near the end of the second movement and its triumphant return near the end of the Finale. Done properly, it definitely provides an emotional tingle.

Sarge

[ChamberNut]

good gawd
how many times have i read this about any Mahler sym

"oh i absoluetly love movements  such and such, but not really such movement".
man its all or nothing.

Good thing for you Paul that Pettersson symphonies are 1 gigantic movement. 

[greg]

I once took my parents to hear the Fifth (Matthias Bamert and the Cleveland Orchestra). Thinking my mother would like the mellow Adagietto best, I asked her, after the symphony had ended, "Wasn't the slow movement beautiful?" She turned to me and said, "I liked the funeral march better." I was totally shocked! Way to go, Mom!

better than when i took my dad to see it...... he's like, "i don't know...."

the whole symphony is great, really.... some days i might even like the 2nd movement better.

[Sergeant Rock]

Good thing for you Paul that Pettersson symphonies are 1 gigantic movement. 

And yet still very inconsistent: for example, measures 178 through 265 in the Eleventh Symphony really suck. I always skip that part 

Sarge