Symphony No. 3

    No use looking up there (at the mountains surrounding
    Steinbach-am-Attersee). That's all been composed by me!

    Mahler to Bruno Walter, July 1896.

    Gentlemen, I have to make a confession to you, and it is this: every
    time one of my symphonies has been performed, people have
    hissed or made a noise, in other words they have disturbed it.
    Don't allow yourselves to be put off by this, we shall play our stuff
    to the end, as best we can; I hope you will help me in this, and
    then we'll see.

    Mahler, addressing the Cologne Orchestra at the beginning of
    rehearsals for the premiere, June 1902.

The gestation of the Third Symphony was far shorter than that of the
Resurrection, and yet far more complex, and a number of draft plans for the
layout of the symphony survive, either in Mahler's own papers or in his
correspondence.

The earliest draft runs as follows:

    Das Gl劒iche Leben, ein Sommernachstraum (nicht nach
    Shakespeare, Anmerkungen eines Kritikers ... Rezensenten): [The
    Happy Life, a Midsummer Night's Dream (not after Shakespeare,
    annotations by a critic ... Reviewer):]

  1.Was mir der Wald erz绊lt [What the forest tells me]
  2.Was mir die D细merung erz绊lt [What the twilight tells me]
  3.Was mir die Liebe erz绊lt [What love tells me]
  4.Was mir die D细merung erz绊lt [What the twilight tells me]
  5.Was mir die Blumen auf der Wiese erz绊len [What the flowers in the
    meadow tell me]
  6.Was mir der Kuckuck erz绊lt [What the cuckoo tells me]
  7.Was mir das Kind erz绊lt [What the child tells me]

This soon became expanded and modified:

  1.Der Sommer marschiert ein (Fanfare - lustiger marsch. Einleitung nu
    Bl钵er und konzertierende Kontrab钵sa) [Summer marches in (Fanfare -
    lively March. Introduction only with Wind and solo Doublebasses)]
  2.Was mir der Wald erz绊lt (I. Satz) [What the forest tells me (!st
    movement)]
  3.Was mir die Liebe erz绊lt (Adagio) [What love tells me (Adagio)]
  4.Was mir die D鄝merung erz绊lt (Scherzo, nur Streicher) [What the
    twilight tells me (Scherzo, strings only)]
  5.Was mir die Blumen auf der Wiese erz绊len [What the flowes in the
    meadow tell me]
  6.Was mir der Kuckuck erz绊lt [What the cuckoo tells me]
  7.Was mir das Kind erz绊lt [What the child tells me]

On August 29, 1895 Mahler wrote to Friedrich L垈r:

    My new symphony will last about 1 1/2 hours - it is all in large
    symphonic form.
    The emphasis on my personal emotional life (in the form of "what
    things tell me") is appropriate to the work's singular intellectual
    content. II-V inclusive are to express the successive orders of
    beings, which I shall correspondingly express thus:

    II What the flowers tell me
    III What the beasts tell me
    IV What the night tells me (man)
    V What the morning tells me (angels)
    The last two numbers with sung text.
    What love tells me,. is a synopsis of my feelings towards all beings, in
    which deeply painful spiritual paths are not avoided, but gradually
    lead through to a blessed faith; "the joyful science". Finally d[as]
    h[immlische] L[eben] (VII), which I have finally however entitled
    "What the child tells me."

Nro. I, Summer marches in, should indicate the humourously subjective
content. Summer is thought of as a victor - in the midst of everything that
grows and blossoms, crawls and speeds, thinks and desires and finally all
that we sense without seeing (Angels - bells - in a transcendental sense.)
Over and above everything, eternal love acts within us - just as rays come
together in a focal point. Do you understand, now?
It is my most individual and richest work.
Nro. I is not yet done and must be kept in reserve for a later date...

On an enclosed sheet, Mahler had written:
                      Symphony Nro. III
                   "THE JOYFUL SCIENCE."
                A SUMMER MORNING'S DREAM

    I Summer marches in.
    II What the flowers in the meadow tell me.
    III What the beasts of the forest tell me.
    IV What the night tells me. (Alto solo.)
    V What the morning bell tells me. (Women's chorus with alto solo.)
    VI What love tells me.
    Motto: "Father behold these wounds of mine! Let no creature be
    unredeemed!" (from Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
    VII Life in heaven. (Soprano solo, humourous.)
    All but Nro. I is finished in score.

The last movement refers to the Wunderhorn song Das himmlische leben
(The Heavenly Life) which Mahler had written in 1902, and which was
eventually to find a home as the finale of the Fourth Symphony. In fact, as
numerous thematic cross-references show, we could consider the entire
symphony to have been generated backwards from this song, which ultimately
did not become a part of the work at all.

On August 6, 1896 (three months before the completion of the autograph
score, which is dated November 22 - appropriately St. Cecilia's Day), Mahler
wrote to Max Marschalk:

My work is quite finished. It has the following titles, from which you can
probably put together something of a guide.
                    A Summer Noon's Dream

Ist section.
Introduction: Pan awakes.
No. I: Summer marches in (Bacchanalian cortege).
IInd section.
No. II: What the flowers of the meadow tell me.
No. III: What the beasts of the forest tell me.
No. IV: What man tells me.
No. V: What the angels tell me.
No. VI: What love tells me.
I shall not bother with any commentary on this. You should get to know the
work before I take it to Berlin.

For some time this has featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the
world's longest regularly-programmed symphony; unfortunately, in the wrong
hands it can easily become a less than fascinating experience on record.

By far the best version I have ever heard is the 1970 LSO/Horenstein
(Unicorn). Jascha Horenstein was one of the twentieth century's great unsung
conductors. His recorded legacy is pitifully small and much of it, especially
from the 50s, was made with second-rate (or worse) orchestras. Only toward
the end of his life did he get the chance to record with the finest ensembles,
but with what effect! Despite the claims of, inker alia, Bernstein, Abbado, Inbal
and Tennstedt this, for me, is Mahler's Third.

If you must have a more modern recording then the second Bernstein (DG)
may well be the performance for you. Beautifully played - despite the brass,
which struck me as a little harsh in the first movement particularly - and well
recorded, Bernstein's affection shines through, although for me this does not
displace his 1962 NYPO recording (now available on Sony), which was the
landmark recording for nearly a decade - until the Horenstein came along in
fact.

Tennstedt (EMI), (recently reissued as part of a set) is fine, as is Inbal (Denon)
- both of these are digital recordings, but they scarcely compete with either
Horenstein or Bernstein.

Tahra is a French label run (or jointly run) by Miriam Scherchen, the great
Hermann's daughter. Although the label has more recently branched out with
other conductors (notably Furtw绅gler), the earliest releases were,
understandably, of Scherchen. The very first, as far as I know, was an
outstanding version of the Third recorded live in 1960 in Leipzig, coupled with
the Adagio from the Tenth.

Scherchen is never conventional, and many may find his Third wilful; for me it
is yet another reminder of what a great conductor the man was, and what a
tragedy it is that, as with Horenstein, we have so little by him in really good
sound with a first-class orchestra.

Abravanel's Third is good, although the singing seems a bit characterless,
particularly his alto. Scarcely competitive either on the grounds of performance
or recording.