Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) composed his FIFTH SYMPHONY between 1901 and 1902, a time during which he found great success in his conducting career, and met and married Alma Schindler, who by the summer of 1902 was expecting their first child. Now one of his most popular works, the complete symphony was not popular upon its premiere in 1904 with the exception of the fourth movement, scored for strings and harp, an exquisitely poetic meditation marked “Adagietto.” Probably performed as a stand-alone work more than any other single symphony movement, the symphony’s achingly lovely adagietto was written as a personal message to Alma, delivered wordlessly to her as a gift, an expression of Mahler’s undying love for his wife, though Leonard Bernstein also cemented the tradition of playing it as an elegy in his tribute to Serge Koussevitzky, then later as a memorial for Robert F. Kennedy. Taking up just five pages in a nearly 250 page score, the work carries an undeniable weight and is an island of calm in the otherwise seething tumult of the FIFTH SYMPHONY. Mahler revised the work several times between 1904 and 1911, when he passed. This edition is the 3rd version. 11×14 oversized score.

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