Mahler – Symphony No. 5 | Cristian Măcelaru | WDRSymphony Orchestra

Mahler – Symphony No. 5 | Cristian Măcelaru | WDRSymphony Orchestra
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Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor, performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cristian Măcelaru. Recorded live on 24 January 2026 at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall.

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor

00:00:00 I. Funeral March
00:12:48 II. Stormy
00:27:41 III. Scherzo. Vigorous, not too fast
00:45:32 IV. Adagietto. Very slow
00:55:57 V. Rondo-Finale. Allegro

WDR Symphony Orchestra
Cristian Măcelaru, conductor

Introduction to the work:
‘My Fifth Symphony is a cursed work. Nobody understands it.’ Gustav Mahler commented with frustration on the performance of his latest work in Hamburg in 1905, where, as a former opera director, he could actually count on a loyal fan base.

This statement is surprising given that the Fifth is now one of Mahler's most popular symphonies. One thing is clear: this symphony stands out clearly from the four preceding ones. Mahler dispensed with the vocal parts that had interwoven his symphonies Nos. 2 to 4 with the song genre. Instead, he now placed greater emphasis on the independence of the individual instruments. Mahler even considered the individual parts ‘so difficult to play that they actually require soloists’ . This shift towards polyphony, towards a denser contrapuntal interweaving of the individual voices, naturally required a corresponding approach to the orchestra, which even a genius like Mahler had to fight for.

The symphony was composed during the summer holidays of 1901 and 1902 in Maiernigg on Lake Wörthersee. On 20 August 1902, he reported joyfully: ‘I'm finally done! So the 5th Symphony is also here.’ But there was no question of it being “finished” – as a letter Mahler wrote in 1911 shows: "I have finished the 5th Symphony. It had to be completely re-orchestrated. It is unbelievable how I could have been so completely mistaken at the time. Apparently, the routine I had acquired in the first four symphonies had completely failed me here – because a new style required a new technique.‘

Consequently, this ’new style" was accompanied by the abandonment of a programme, i.e. references to extra-musical content. Mahler was certain: ‘The human voice would have absolutely no place here. Not a word is needed; everything is said purely through music.’ Nevertheless, overzealous researchers and interpreters are still searching for the symphony's supposed ‘secret programme’ to this day. The music seems to suggest this: for example, a warlike fanfare opens the first movement.
But the music collapses and flows into a funeral march. A biting caricature of military pathos? In any case, this march, with its interludes, takes on such weight that Mahler declared it a separate movement – even though it is actually ‘only’ an extended slow introduction to the following ‘stormy’ movement.

The core of the symphony is the scherzo in third place. There is no trace of broken pathos; Mahler seems to take genuine pleasure in folk music in the style of a country dance. In reality, this music is highly complex in structure, very much in the spirit of Bach. ‘I stick to my principle that nothing should be repeated, but that everything must develop from within itself,’ Mahler said about this movement.

The subsequent Adagietto has contributed significantly to the popularity of the symphony, at least since Luchino Visconti used it in his film adaptation of Thomas Mann's ‘Death in Venice’. According to conductor Willem Mengelberg, Gustav Mahler wrote this movement as a declaration of love to his future wife Alma, whom he met in the autumn of 1901: ‘Instead of a letter, he sent her the manuscript, without a word. She understood and wrote back telling him to come.’ Who wouldn't melt away in the face of this elegiac music for strings and harp, which also contains a quotation from Wagner's ‘Tristan’?

As disparate and incompatible as the first four movements may seem, this contrast is resolved in the frenzy of the final rondo, which begins somewhat ponderously but ends all the more energetically. Whether Mahler is following Beethoven's scheme of ‘through night to light’ or merely displaying a ‘forced reconciliation’ (Theodor Adorno) is up to each listener to decide for themselves. Mahler's position is clear: ‘This music was written without any external occasion. It is within me.’
Text: Clemens Matuschek (abridged)

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