It is hard to believe that Gustav Mahler was so unappreciated and often viewed as a conductor who occasionally wrote "overlong" symphonies. This work is certainly one of the greatest ever written and would certainly not look out-of-place along side works by masters like Beethoven and Mozart. People often do not like this symphony and others by Mahler, simply because they do not understand it. The entire work is a collection of emotions, as they were experienced by the composer. Therefore, to see the music properly, the listener must feel those emotions too. It is therefore impossible to approach the work from a critical and analytical point of view. The emotion that exists in the score alone is incredible. The adagietto, though often considered to be a calm and relaxing piece, is one of the most painful pieces to listen to that exist. It show the pain the composer was feeling as he wrote the piece, largely because of the many deaths in his family. The work must be played as a stream of emotions, not a a series of notes on a page. The best recording I have heard is that with Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. Bernstein was a conductor who truely understood the music and felt whist he was conducting what Mahler felt whilst he was composing.
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