Mahler’s Symphony No 7

The charged, slow introduction to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 is hair-raising. As always, Mahler’s symphonies are aural adventures that deviate from the norm, which is especially true of the seventh symphony, in which he pulls out the stops like never before. In a famous quotation, he once said to Jean Sibelius that “a symphony must be like an entire world – it should contain everything.”

This symphony has undeservedly landed in the shadow of his more famous compositions, but as many people now point out, Mahler’s symphonic genius truly manifests in the seventh symphony.

When he began composing it, he started with the middle. The form of the symphony is also three middle movements, where night is the central starting point that is surrounded by the dramatic introduction and the finale’s life-affirming brightness.