Adagietto (4th Movement) from Symphony No 5 (1901) – Gustav Mahler

Put Adagietto on in the background while you’re doing chores or whatever and believe you me, you won’t regret it.

According to Merriam Webster the first known use of adagietto was in 1841. Adagio is an Italian musical term that means “slowly” or “at ease.” It is typically used to indicate a slow tempo in a piece of music. Adagietto, on the other hand, is a slightly faster tempo marking, meaning “moderately slow.” It is often used as a transitional tempo between adagio and allegretto. This movement was recommended to me here and I find it endearing.
This movement reminds me of the quote from Remains of the Day – ‘It’s not scandalous at all. It’s just a little sentimental old love story‘. Gustav Mahler was a romantic composer after all.

From the Wikipedia article below:

Today’s piece: the the fourth movement may be Mahler’s most famous composition and is the most frequently performed of his works. The British premiere of the entire Symphony No. 5 came in 1945, 36 years after that of the Adagietto, which was conducted by Henry Wood at a Proms concert in 1909.

It is said to represent Mahler’s love song to his wife Alma. According to a letter she wrote to Willem Mengelberg, the composer left a small poem:

Wie ich Dich liebe, Du meine Sonne,
ich kann mit Worten Dir’s nicht sagen.
Nur meine Sehnsucht kann ich Dir klagen
und meine Liebe, meine Wonne!

In which way I love you, my sunbeam,
I cannot tell you with words.
Only my longing, my love and my bliss
can I with anguish declare.

As seen below: Leonard Bernstein also conducted it with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. A biographical film ‘Maestro‘ is coming out about him shortly. He also did this movement during the funeral Mass for Robert F. Kennedy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Manhattan, on 8 June 1968, and briefly discusses this section along with the opening bars of the second movement in his Charles Eliot Norton Lectures from 1973.

In February 1901 Gustav Mahler had suffered a sudden major hemorrhage and his doctor later told him that he had come within an hour of bleeding to death. The composer spent quite a while recuperating. He moved into his own lakeside villa in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia in June 1901. Mahler was delighted with his newfound status as the owner of a grand villa. According to friends, he could hardly believe how far he had come from his humble beginnings.

The musical canvas and emotional scope of the work (5th Symphony), which lasts nearly seventy minutes, are huge.

References:
1. Gustav Mahler – Wikipedia

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