Mahler Symphony No. 3

In summer 1895, Gustav Mahler went on vacation.  He’d had a busy year conducting in Hamburg, and went to his cabin to do what he always did in his free time—compose.  He outlined a program for his new work—Pan’s awakening, the Bacchic entrance of summer—but leaves the movement titles out of the program.  In this Symphony No. 3, the largest and longest in the current symphonic repertoire, he leaves the story up to the listener—according to Mahler, “you just have to bring along ears and a heart and—not least—willingly surrender to the rhapsodist.”