Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 4

arranged for piano solo and soprano soloist

by Iain Farrington

Aria Editions
Copyright © 2015 by Aria Editions

First published in 2015 by Aria Editions

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 Symphony No. 4

1. Bedächtig, nicht eilen ……….......................................................................…. 1

2. In gemächlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast ....................................….27
3. Ruhevoll, poco adagio …….........................................................................…. 40
4. Sehr behaglich ………...........................................................................................…. 58

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) started composition on his Fourth Symphony in

the summer of 1899, finishing the short score the following year while staying
on the Wörthersee in Austria. Mahler himself conducted the work's premiere
in Munich on 25th November 1901. The symphony's final movement is a song
written and orchestrated in 1892, using a text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
(The Boy's Magic Horn), the collection of folk-songs made by Achim von
Amim and Clemens Brentano and published in the first decade of the
nineteenth century. This song, Das himmlische Leben, had been intended as the
final movement for the Third Symphony, with the subtitle What the child tells
me. Instead the song forms the basis of the Fourth Symphony's musical
material as well as the positive mood so prevalent in the work.

The first movement has the elegance of a Classical work from Haydn, with
lightly bouncing textures, as well as intricate counterpoint. At the climax of
the development the mood darkens, with a trumpet fanfare that is a
premonition of the opening of the Fifth Symphony. A ghostly Ländler
characterises the second movement, a type of Totentanz (Dance of Death) in
the form of a Scherzo with two Trios. One of Mahler's most outstanding
achievements is the third movement, a set of variations of extraordinary
serenity. A sudden blaze of sunlight in E major towards the end of the
movement subsides to a delicate conclusion. Finally, Mahler introduces the
soprano soloist for the song that ends the symphony and from which the
mood of the whole work is derived. The vocal line is presented here as in the
original, with the piano accompaniment closely based on Mahler's 1892
setting for piano. This movement was recorded by Mahler himself on a Welte-
Mignon piano roll in November 1905.