Welcome back, James Gaffigan

The famous “Adagietto” movement from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony became a worldwide hit before the rest of the symphony was ever even known or appreciated. It became unexpectedly popular as a somewhat morbid film score in Visconti’s visually powerful film of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Since then, the entire symphony has become one of Mahler’s most popular works, and not without reason. “Every note is full of vitality,” said the composer. In contrast to his earlier symphonies, there is no need for vocal parts. “Everything is expressed purely musically.” Everything is of the utmost emotional expressivity, and everything is interwoven, even in stylistic terms. The most banal beginnings give rise to the most complicated structures, themes that sound like an outcry develop into sweet melodic lines. In short, a cosmos beyond compare. The emotional heart of the symphony, begun in 1901, is undoubtedly the “Adagietto”, a luminous, supremely subtle string song, and a tender declaration of love by Gustav Mahler to Alma Schindler, whom he married in March 1902.