Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Adagio (Finale) | Andris Nelsons & The Lucerne Festival Orchestra

Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Adagio (Finale) | Andris Nelsons & The Lucerne Festival Orchestra
馬勒：第三號交響曲，柔板（終曲）| 安德里斯·尼爾森斯與琉森音樂節管弦樂團

3317 views Aug 30, 2026 KULTUR- UND KONGRESSZENTRUM LUZERN
#Mahler #Adagio #classicalmusic
"What Love Tells Me" ("Was mir die Liebe erzählt"): This is the deeply emotional title Gustav Mahler originally gave to the final movement of his Symphony No. 3. In this video, the solemn finale was performed by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under the direction of Andris Nelsons at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre in Lucerne, Switzerland, on April 6, 2014. The occasion for the concert was equally emotional — it was a memorial concert for the legendary conductor Claudio Abbado, who had died on January 20 of the same year. Abbado was one of the co-founders the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003, and since the conductor had a lifelong connection to Mahler's music, it was only fitting that "his" orchestra bid him farewell with what is arguably Mahler’s most moving symphonic finale.

Gustav Mahler’s (1860–1911) Symphony No. 3 in D minor for large orchestra, alto solo, boys' choir, and women's choir is unusual in several respects. Because of its enormous orchestral power and large vocal ensemble, it has been likened to a symphony-cantata. With its six movements, it's not only Mahler’s longest composition, but also one of the longest symphonies ever written. Originally, the Austrian composer even planned a seventh movement. In addition, the symphony, composed between 1893 and 1896 and revised in 1906, was originally conceived as a work of program music. Its program was derived from the texts of the sung movements as well as the titles of the instrumental movements. Mahler repeatedly revised these movement titles and ultimately removed them entirely when the symphony was published. The theme of the Third Symphony was intended to be a creation story, according to the composer.

The sixth movement of the Third Symphony, labeled simply "Adagio," is given the following instruction in the published version: "Slow. Peaceful. Deeply felt." Regarding the earlier title "What Love Tells Me," Mahler wrote to a friend that it referred to the highest form of love the love of God. As such, one can say that the Adagio is nothing less than a musical expression of divine love, at least as it was revealed to the composer. With this in mind, listeners can better take in the beauty and grandeur of this music.

The strings play an infinitely flowing melody in the most delicate manner, with variation and multiple motifs. From this emerges an apparently endless stream of sound, continued by individual woodwinds and brass instruments. The harmonic structure repeatedly builds up in intensity before suddenly collapsing, at times even with a sharp, almost piercing sound. Yet the calm flow begins again and again, as if nothing could disturb it. Mahler himself said of this movement that everything within it resolves into peace and existence. One might add that it is nothing less than a solemn chorale that introduces the closing section of this captivating Adagio and carries the flow of sound toward a sublime conclusion.

© 2014 Accentus Music

Text: Rita Kass

Film Provided by DW Classical Music