Mahler Symphony No. 5 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide

The third part of the symphony starts with the fourth movement, a tender Adagietto, one of the most intimate compositions of Mahler and certainly therefore one of the most famous, but also because Visconti used it in his film Death in Venice. After the rather trivial Scherzo, we encounter emotion and sensuality, it is pure poetry transformed into music.

One feels that after the Scherzo, there was a rupture out of which a new start arises and thus the Adagietto becomes the prelude of the last movement. The orchestration is in no way inferior to the tenderness of the composition divided in three parts: Strings are exclusively used to play a clear and longing tune accompanied by a harp playing in a way the role of a Basso Continuo. In the middle part, a bit more vivid, where the harp is missing, the accessory theme of the Finale is introduced. After the Glissando of the culminating point, the harp returns and the yearning tune reaches its highest emotion before the Adagietto softly dies away.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 5 - 4th Movement with Lew Smoley.