Season 3 - "My Joyful Science" - Mahler's Third Symphony

In the sixth and final movement of Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony, he reaches the top rung on his ladder of consciousness. This glorious adagio is Mahler’s celebration of God’s perfect love.

Angels are the next step on Gustav Mahler’s ladder of consciousness. In the joyful fifth movement of his Third Symphony, the orchestra is joined by a children’s choir and a women’s choir giving voice to the angels.

In the fourth movement of his Third Symphony, Gustav Mahler’s ladder of consciousness reaches humanity. It is a dramatic orchestral song for mezzo soprano that explores the meaning of existence, with lyrics from Nietzsche’s book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”

Gustav Mahler made animals the next step upward on his ladder of consciousness in the third movement of his Third Symphony. Summoning both humor and tragedy, he portrays the sounds of the forest, from sweetly singing nightingales to fearsome creatures.

In the second movement of his Third Symphony, Gustav Mahler begins the upward journey on the ladder of consciousness. He considers flowers the first step and portrays them in musically charming ways.

Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony is the story of creation, with each movement a higher rung on the ladder of consciousness. It begins with lifeless matter and the struggle for life to emerge, portrayed as a musical battle between winter and summer.

Season 3 focuses on Mahler’s Third Symphony in D minor (1895-1896), exploring Mahler’s unique perspective on the different orders of being, from lifeless matter to highest consciousness. Each episode is devoted to a movement of the symphony. Guests include conductors Kent Nagano and Michael Tilson Thomas; principal musicians of the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam; scholars from New York City and St. Louis in the United States, Oxford, England and Athens, Greece; and featuring James Lurie as the voice of Gustav Mahler, with Paul Hecht as the voice of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Mahler described the last movement of his Second Symphony, which includes two soloists and a chorus, as a colossal fresco of The Day of Judgement. All of humanity meets its maker, and Mahler stretches his musical wings, soaring to glorious heights.

The fourth movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony is a delicate song for mezzo-soprano and orchestra. It’s a turning point in the symphony, where the protagonist’s spiritual wisdom blossoms.

In the summer of 1893, Mahler wrote a song, entitled “St. Anthony of Padua’s Sermon to the Fish.” It turned out so well, he incorporated melodies from it into the third movement of his Second Symphony.