A Whole World

With his third contribution to the genre, Gustav Mahler was to exceed the bounds of what is permitted in symphony, more than ever before. Over two summer holidays - 1895 and 1896 - he put to paper his genre-transgressing work. In the composer's house in Steinbach am Attersee in the Salzkammergut, his musical thoughts on that monumental work were written down note by note. This time it was not about mere exaggeration; it was to make the whole world sound. "Symphony means to me: building up a world by all means of existing technology." In fact, a whole cosmos opens up to the listener in this score. It is music that leads from inorganic nature to the living, to plants and animals to man, then to angels and love. Mahler's Third Symphony - composed at the end of the 19th century and premiering at the beginning of the new century - bode farewell to tradition and laid the groundwork for the future.