Nobody is the same after hearing this symphony for the first time.

"My time will come" - Gustav Mahler, who was more appreciated in his time as a conductor than a composer.

The final chorus part is probably the best music ever composed...

As I get older and more embittered by life I always listen to this to see if my eyes still water. They always do so I know I have some emotion left in me.

I attended a concert where they performed this a few weeks ago, and have to admit to crying uncontrollably multiple times during the performance.

Gustav Mahler was a genius, maybe the greatest composer ever. I recommend his 8th symphony, it's VERY EPIC also. Just like this one. From another composer; another apotheotic symphony, the 7th by Shostakovich. It's just amazing!

My ex-wife and I went to a concert where this symphony was played. At the end you could have heard a pin drop. It was as though we all held in our breath. For 30 seconds total silence, and then the applause broke out and lasted for a good few minutes. It was an experience - I would say, a spiritual one. That's what music is supposed to do.

So I just found your reaction and as a great fan of Mahler and as someone who has performed this, I can give you my "from the stage" reaction. I performed this with the San Francisco Symphony in 1996. I was a tenor in the chorus and I can tell you it was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. When we sang the fortissimo "Auferstehen" (37:50 in this video) we HURLED the phrase into the audience. At the end of the concert, I no longer felt my feet and had the impression I had levitated off the stage! I will never forget that feeling! Explore ALL of Mahler's works -- they give and give and give!

The validation you give to classical music is a warm in our hearts. As a already retired classical musician and having a love story in my life full with classical music I must thank YOU for the visibility you give to the classical musicians. That was the dream of my passed away husband. People watching classical music everywhere in the world, having access to that!And you, and your channel give is to all of us! I'm a huge fan of you and your job! Thank you for not letting the love for classical music go away in our hearts!

I watched this with my wife a day and a half before she died. I can’t find the words to tell you how the final text impacted us.

Don’t pause and talk. Let the music speak! I just sang in the chorus of a performance of this Symphony last week and in my 73 years as a musician this was one of the highlights. Highly emotional for the performers and the audience.

YOU ARE SO UNDERRATED

If you haven’t hear Bernstein do this you haven’t heard the symphony at it’s best!!

You need to hear this live - it is EPIC!

Greatest composer of all time.

Of course the finale is something else, but the percussion crescendo earlier on in the movement is so exhilarating!

It's the only musical representation of the Resurrection that I can believe. Wonderful that you appreciate it so much. It's treasure. Don't pause it, just get through it, because you won't get the full effect otherwise. Think of the journey from the anger and despair in the first movement, the efforts to distract in the central movements, and then the recap, how hard life is for us all, and then the glorious beauty of the life eternal.

The "interesting" piccolo solo just before the chorus' soft entry is supposed to represent a birdsong - the last sound from a fading Earth just before the glory of Heaven begins to wash in. P.S. - Do not EVER pause Mahler!

You're doing fine with seperating the talking. Listen to the music as intended. As you've experienced in this movement, composers played a lot with the listeners expectations. Everything is crafted with intent, which also means slower, less powerful parts are there to prepare you for the bigger things. Interruptions can harm this effect. Keep it up and all the best to you!

I think the Beethoven emperor is a must hear for anyone who is getting into concertos, it’s one of the greatest out there! Zimmermans interpretation of the best for me.

. I happened upon this podcast by accident while I was grillng over Labor Day at my son's house. I discovered Mahler 2 when I was 22. I am now 74. It was such a treat to hear and watch your reaction to this glorious music.How lucky you are to have the rest of your life to look forward to listening to it. However I can guarantee you that a live performance by a great orchestra takes it to a different level. The Cleveland Orchestra, one of the best in the world will be performing it on September 28th and 29th in historic Severance Hall. You should try to attend.

Mahler's 1901 program for the finale: We are again faced with all the terrible questions, - and the mood at the end of the 1st movement. - The voice of the caller is heard: The end of all living things has come, the last judgment announces itself, and the whole horror of the day of all days has broken in. - The earth trembles, the graves spring open, the dead rise and stride along in endless procession. The great and the small of this earth, the kings and the beggars, the righteous and the wicked - all want to go there; the call for mercy and grace sounds terribly at our ear. - It cries out more and more terribly - all senses pass us by, all consciousness fades away at the approach of the eternal judgment. The "Great Appeal" sounds, the trumpets of the Apocalypse call: - in the midst of the dreadful silence we believe to hear a distant, distant nightingale, like a last trembling echo of earthly life! Softly a chorus of the saints and celestials resounds: "Resurrect, yes resurrect!" There appears the glory of God! A wonderful, mild light pierces us to the heart - all is still and blissful! - And behold, there is no judgment - There is no sinner, no righteous, no great and no small - There is no punishment and no reward! An almighty feeling of love illuminates us with blessed knowledge and being!

As a former music student, who made a career in IT, I nonetheless kept in touch with my musical interests. A high point (perhaps of my life) was as a chorister for a recorded performance of this piece with MTT and the San Francisco Symphony. Something to cherish.

Try all his symphonies. You will appreciate it. The finale of the 1st, the slow but heartwrenching 3rd's finale (his longest symphony), the first movement of the 4th are all fantastic for me, personally. HOWEVER, the 9th's finale is perhaps my favorite movement in perhaps all of music. When you listen to this you might want to also watch a lecture by Bernstein (famous conductor pianist composer educator) which gives more context.

This always brings me close To tears. This is one of the most beautiful, dramatic pieces in classical music. I like that you allowed your audience to listen to this movement in its entirety and then you commented.

I love the added enjoyment of another person deeply enjoying music ❤

As someone who has gotten to sing this finale live with orchestra and full choir, I relate to all emotions involved in this video. I would cry every night singing because of how emotionally invigorating this piece really is.

I recommend all of the symphonies of course. The Kindertotenlieder and Ruckert Lieder are also so great. I appreciate you not talking too much over the music. The story is that Mahler could not figure out an ending for this work and he went to a funeral and heard a funeral chorus and that is where he got the ending.

I think the thing that amazes me the most about mahler is how he can take a simple idea and make a ton of music with it that all feels fresh.

I've listened to this symphony over and over again from start to finish, in fact all Mahler's symphonies. In 1971 I heard the Adigietto from the fifth symphony and it changed my life, no exaggeration and the next day bought all his symphonies and been listening to them ever since. The second is astounding, it affirms life like all his works excepts Mahler put everything in the world into his symphonies, warts and all, death and life joy and sorrow and deep reflection in the slow movement of the sixth syymphony. Listen to his greatest, the ninth, the last movement will kill you for it ends so quietly but with the resignation and acceptance of his coming death at fifty years of age, there are no words to describe that movement, it's sheer beauty and dragging every sinew from your heart, listen to it I beg you. It's wonderful to see you listen to it for the first time, probably blew your head off, the second, for that's what it does, it's brilliant. Stick with Mahler, you'll never regret it. The first symphony is great fun and the ending will really get you going thinking anything is possible. Good man, you obviously have a good ear for music. And thank you for presenting this, great to watch your reactions especially at the end, it said "What was That!!!"

I like the way you listen to the whole thing, then talk Recommendation: Sibelius violin concerto

I just saw the New York Philharmonic perform this a week ago. Just an incredible experience hearing it live.

Hey GIDI, greetings from Gustav Mahler Society in Vienna. We were very pleased and excited that you are enjoying the music by Gustav Mahler. Keep going and go for it! People, turn the music off and look at his face. Your face expressed all human emotions.

This is my first time to your channel, but I really respect your reaction to Mahler. If you have a taste for other "epic" music, particularly piano: you might really get big feels from Rachmaninoff's piano concertos (any of them honestly, but start with #2, as it's the most popular. #3 after that). You will not regret it! They are both long (30+ min) but packed full of emotion, melody, and piano fireworks! My favorite version of #2 is with Vladimir Ashkenazy performing, and my favorite version of #3 is with Yefim Bronfman performing. But honestly, you can't go wrong listening to any solid pianist and orchestra doing those. Enjoy!

Every time I listen to this it's like the first time I've heard it and every time without fail no dry eyes

This is my favorite piece to listen to and perform, hands down. It has changed my life

It's amazing the effect that a gorgeous full chorus brings to the table -- a whole other range of emotions, as you said. Love your reactions!

A recommendation for the next concerto: Beethoven concerto No 5, also called emperor. Pls lol

Ravel gaspard de la nuit👀, also sorry for begging, it's just such a good piece. Might be a bit though to understand, somewhere along the lines of jeux deau, but i think you'll likr it.

Hi GIDI I am quite excited about your focused curiosity, emotional and intellectual readiness and dedication. I first heard Mahler (as a phenomenon) as a 12-year-old. Today I am 68 years old and I still can't get behind the ironic, almost schizophrenic mystery of his compositions. The tension does not let up! In gratitude that you present so-called "difficult, old-fashioned" music in this way and exemplify people to surrender to these treasures. I wish your channel much success!

Recommendations: Chopin nocturne op 48 no 1, ravel: miriors, Beethoven concerto in E flat major, emperor.

I would recommend rimsky korsakovs scheherezade or Tchaikovskys violin concerto, but for more mahler, I would go for his 5th symphony.

Aside from being a genius composer (the greatest of all time imho), Mahler was the best conductor of his day, and knew no boundaries when it came to finding the absolute perfect balance of sound. Just for instance, at 3:13, 16:31 and 21:04 that's an ensemble of instruments playing in a room off stage.

I’ve seen this Mahler symphony twice. Lockington conducted the Modesto Symphony in 2016 and Dudamel conducted the LA Phil Hollywood Bowl 2019. Both were great, but I’m no musician, it just tugs at my heart in ways I can’t explain. 😭🤷🏻‍♂️ looking forward to watching again when its possible.

I'd vote for you listening to the whole thing, rather than pausing and breaking the flow. The overall effect of the music deserves to be experienced as the composer intended it, and the pay-off is more impactful for it.... as Mahler 2 clearly demonstrates :) That was a great reaction to a sublime piece of music, and the performance by Eschenbach, the orchestra and singers was one of the best you could have picked. I look forward to you revisiting this symphony with Bernstein!

being captured while listening to this symphony, well, welcome to the club. It plays with every emotion you can think of. Now that this symphony captured you Gidi, go see it live... if you thought this was good on headphones, wait till you hear it live... x10 and more. I tip my hat for dropping this brilliant symphony on your show. Moreover, some great suggestions below in the comments.

Thanks for sharing your emotions so honestly with the world !

Mahler changed my life. I decided to go looking for Mahler reactions, and I'm glad I found yours!

This is such an awesome reaction vid

This music is holy and I'm not even religious, I get shivers, I feel the need to cry, to rejoice. I once saw the symphony live and walked away crying, it such a profound spiritual experience.

I watched all your mahler videos, gonna watch many more. I just love how you went contrary to belief and are enjoying some artistic craftsmanship of the past. I'm gonna have great time browsing your channel.

Absolutely epic! I think you did a great job with this. We can see your emotions in your face without pausing to talk and as someone else mentioned, the music is crafted to build emotions in the listener, so a sudden break from that can spoil the effect. I think the way you do your reactions is fine just the way it is.

And from the last judgement, Mahler 3 takes you back to the creation.

42:35 try Bernsteins recordings. It´s a lot faster in the beginning of the 5th movement and tempo in many passages is very different and I really prefer his interpretations of Mahler.

Loved your reaction, mahlers symphonies can be crazy sometimes but they are great compositions. A great piece to react to next would be Chopins piano concerto no. 1

You make classical music a force to be reckoned with and show that it is approachable and for all lovers of music, any kind of music.

I really enjoyed seeing your reactions to this incredible work. You picked a good recording also, the conductor Eschenbach is one of the greatest interpreters of Mahler in the world today. As a classical musician my job is to share this type of music, and it’s especially gratifying to perform for people who are new to the genre! Cheers

Glad you're enjoying this symphony so much. I'm playing it next spring, and really looking forward to it -- it'll be my first time playing Mahler. That said, a thought for future reaction videos: you've reacted to a lot of orchestral music and solo piano music. I'd love to see reactions to some chamber music, because it's a whole important genre in classical music. You get to see several musicians come together as equals and hear a fascinating balance between solo and collective expression. A selection of some of my favorite chamber works to start from, in no particular order: Dvorak, String Quartet No. 12 "American" Brahms, String Quintet No. 2 (there's a really stunning performance from the SpringLight Festival on KZfaq) Brahms, Piano Trio No. 1 Brahms, Piano Quartet No. 3 Brahms, Horn Trio Borodin, String Quartet No. 2 Schubert, String Quartet No. 14 ("Death and the Maiden") Schubert, String Quintet Beethoven, String Quartet No. 7 Mendelssohn, String Quartet No. 2 Mendelssohn, Octet Schumann, Piano Quartet Dohnanyi, Piano Quintet No. 1 Mozart, Clarinet Quintet Haydn, String Quartet Op. 64 No. 5 ("Lark")

I say do it your way. I thoroughly enjoyed your company. Laughter and tears at the same time! Total cleansing.

The word overwhelming comes to mind.

I sang this with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and was the MOST AMAZING work I've sang.. I've never sang in any choruses since.. They will be playing this at my Celebration of Life.. Bernstein's conducting has English translations

what a beautiful reaction

This is one of the legendary finales in all symphonic music in the sense that everyone with an interest in symphony heard it. I had the pleasure to attend a concert, when this symphony was played and I would highly recommend it. The 5th movement features an off-stage band - it only sounds truly off-stage live, when the sound comes from another direction than the stage, that's not something fully captureable by recordings I think. Mahler 2 is a cornerstone of symphonic repertoire, it stretched out the boundaries of what a symphony could be.

Very long piece, but as you saw, it worth it. I hope you’ll react to Gershwin’s music soon, it worth it too.

One of my all time fav pieces of music

This finale changed my life

Thanks!

10:56 that’s one of my favorite parts when the trumpet hits that high (concert) c 🎺 . Marvelous!

11:32 that was my reaction the first time I heard that 😎

I recommend watching this Bernstein version of the fourth movement. Bernstein studied Mahler intensely, to the point where he once stated he felt like he wrote the music himself. He introduced Mahler's music to America. You really feel the power of what Mahler is writing about in this recording. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nbeTp858r7PLfWQ.html

I hear you, Gidi! I hear you...thank you!!

If I may suggest anothe strong choir based masterpiece: poulenc Stabat mater. It's a mass written in the 20th century by a French composer. One of my favorite works ever

Welcome to the show, dude! I think you get it. You need to check out "Das Lied Von Der Erde" by Mahler. If we just had No. 2 and Das Lied, it would be enough.

Hopefully you get the chance to hear it live. The fifth, third, eighth, sixth and ninth are also emotionally draining in a good way.

Oh what gorgeous, blinding, LUMINOSITY. These colours, their touching ambiguity, it’s like the flow of consciousness painted in tones. But the end is really an EXPANSION, it just WANTS to grow into whatever space is left in my head, and then leave it. Transcendental Mahler, a genius among geniuses. And completely agree with you on the mezzo soprano, she was definitely one of the high points of this performance. About what you were asking. The flow is INTEGRAL. In music everything that messes with time ( be it a pause or too slow/fast performance( a little bit on the slowish side this performance)) can just break the thing apart. Music is really an artform through time. So I really don’t recommend you pausing, instead consider perhaps taking some quick notes of stuff that made an impression (good or bad) on you, to orient you in your appreciation in the end.

Welcome to the End of Time, the Final Judgement, and the Eternal Joy! (Should be all capital letters. :)) How happy are we to be on this journey - a journey of hope ultimately... Let it seep in...

Yep, it's amazing.

Chills

Mahler's Symphonies, No. 2 and No. 8, usually just the final movements, get the traction on these YT channels. That is probably just because they are the most dramatic and stand alone quite well. Mahler's other works are less dramatic, shorter, and in some ways, easier to cope with. Mahler's works were really not part of the common symphonic program performed prior to the 1960s. Bernstein almost single-handed drove a modern revival of Mahler as conductor of the NY Philharmonic in the early 1960s. I was just starting college in 1964 and was part of a group which was very much into "high-end" recorded music reproduction, which then meant records. I was introduced to Mahler by a fellow student who worked like a slave to afford his huge Klipshorns supported by some of the best equipment money could buy. He acquired one of the box sets of Mahler symphonies published by Columbia Records under their premium Masterworks label, by the NY Phil and Bernstein. That was a cold $100 in 1965 money, a princely sum for a college student. Although Bernstein was later criticized for putting his excessive stamp on Mahler's works, his was the definitive Mahler for several decades. For alternatives, try Sym No.1 and No, 4. If you like vocal works, try The Song of the Earth.

Una delicia, y el coro mas ese final una maravilla.

Just listen and be in the moment.

Gran obra. Reacción lógica. Me encanta.

Isn’t it simply great - listen to this music!!!

It is always such a joy to not hear this piece for a few months and then listen to the finale and WITHOUT FAIL the hair on my neck stands up and I am filled with pure ecstacy. I am filled with the presence of God himself. Truly music that transcends this world.

"What os going on?" 😂😂😂 It's Mahler's way to say "it's done!".

Mahler's Second (Auferstehung) and I go back to my teenage years or perhaps even earlier. This needs some background. My late father came from a similar background as Gustav Mahler, from Northern Bohemia in the Austrian-Hungarian empire, today the Czech Republic. He was five years old when Mahler died and experienced in his life what Mahler gave a voice in his music - all the angst and premonitions of the awful twentieth century. My father was a young student in Prague when he started a lifelong obsession with Mahler's music and Mahler's life and times. Later, when in 1938 he fled for the Nazis to Amterdam in the Netherlands, he lived in the city where Mahler's music was regularly performed when in the rest of the world no one wanted to hear it. Mahler visited Amsterdam many times and conducted there his music himself. My parents married in 1945, two weeks after the liberation when he came out of hiding. Their marriage did not last and their divorce was acrimonious. I do not know why I share these biographical details - except perhaps because Mahler's music has been for me over the years a kind of lens through which I could sometimes see my own brokenness and the brokenness of the world in which I (we all) live. My own first confrontation with Mahler (I was 15 or 16 years and it was the crazy '60s) was this second symphony - in the Haitink recording on Philips. I fell in love with the 1st movement. For at least a year I never listened to the 4th and 5th movements on the B-side of the vinyl. I think I was afraid that nothing could beat those first three movements with their emotions. How wrong was I. Meanwhile I have discovered the Judaism that both Mahler and my own father were so alienated from. Due to my parents' divorce when I was a mere toddler I never knew my father as a father - although I visited him with my two older siblings and later on my own, he was a stranger to me. Finally, when he was in the last weeks of his long life of 92 years, I lived in London and he was in hospital in Amsterdam, in full control of his mind but with a body that was shutting down. During the weeks of his dying every Sunday I took the Eurostar train to Brussels, rented a car there and drove to Amterdam to be with him for an hour or so. For the first time in my life I had a father. I took a stack of CDs with me to play in the car from Brussels to Amterdam and again on the way back. All of them were Mahler recordings. I listened especially to Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony. Every Mahler symphony is a world. Whilst Mahler's Second may open the door to faith for some, Mahler;s Nonth and the Lied help with dying - as we all one day will.

Mahler was the sunset of the Romantic era. But what a sunset.

All these reactors and not one reacting the heat version of all. The Bernstein performance

KC Symphony, directed by Michael Stern, performs it June 14-16, 2024 at Helzberg Hall in Kansas City.

Wait to you hear the finale to Bruckner's 5th with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Then switch to Tchaikovsky's Fourth. The first movement is such an emotional rollercoaster. Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra is probably the best perfirmance out there. Loved your reaction. This coming from a guy who loves symphonic music, but not a fan of Mahler.

Firm recommendation for Messiaen: Turangalîa, Des canyon and St Francis are all must and would take few months to get out. At least!

Very nice reaction. You might want to try a version like Dudamel's with the English translation of the lyrics, too.

Mahler 5 now ? Loved ur reaction ur amazingly funny

I love how finely the humans have crafted the art of sound manipulation

Great Orchestra btw

Since you're on a classical music journey it would be great to see you react to Stevie Wonder "They won't go when I go". This piece hits me like Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor, plus it has Stevie's heartwrenching vocals... "Ecclesiastes" is also a beautiful display of melodic church organ prowess. Henk Hopman's version really does it justice.

loving the videos! what is the intro song called? thats fire haha. Also if youre interested in more Mahler, I would recommend Mahler 5, 6th movement, adagietto, his most popular movement.

Mahler 8

Best music EVER. Now listen to the Simon Rattle version from 1998 Birmingham.

Mahlers “Song of the Earth “ - Das Lied Von Der Erde - for the other side of the coin of this genius composer It will break your heart