In this large work, the composer further developed the creativity of "sound of the distance" and creating a "world of its own", aspects already seen in his First Symphony.

[1] It was voted the fifth-greatest symphony of all time in a survey of conductors carried out by the BBC Music Magazine.

[2] Mahler completed what would become the first movement of the symphony in 1888 as a single-movement symphonic poem called Totenfeier (Funeral Rites).

[4] When Mahler took up his appointment at the Hamburg Opera in 1891, he found the other important conductor there to be Hans von Bülow, who was in charge of the city's symphony concerts.

Bülow told Mahler that Totenfeier made Tristan und Isolde sound to him like a Haydn symphony.

"It struck me like lightning, this thing," he wrote to conductor Anton Seidl, "and everything was revealed to me clear and plain."

[3] Mahler initially devised a narrative programme (actually several variant versions) for the work, which he showed to a number of friends (including Natalie Bauer-Lechner and Max Marschalk [de]).

The first movement is marked Mit durchaus ernstem und feierlichem Ausdruck (With complete gravity and solemnity of expression).

The exposition is repeated in a varied form (from rehearsal number 4 through 15, as Ludwig van Beethoven often did in his late string quartets).

The development presents several ideas that will be used later in the symphony, including a theme based on the Dies irae plainchant.

The eventual goal of the symphony, E-flat major, is briefly hinted at after rehearsal 17, with a theme in the trumpets that returns in the finale.

Often conductors will meet Mahler half way, pausing for a few minutes while the audience takes a breather and settles down and the orchestra retunes in preparation for the rest of the piece.

This creates a natural separation between the first movement and the rest of the symphony and also saves the singers more than twenty minutes of sitting on stage.

3, where – due to the length of the piece – a real break after the first movement (as between two acts of an opera) is highly recommended, and indeed indicated by Mahler.

Mahler called the climax of the movement, a blistering B♭m/C chord in triple-forte which occurs near the end, sometimes a "cry of despair", and sometimes a "death shriek".

The fourth movement, "Urlicht" (Primal Light) is marked Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht (Very solemn, but simple).

The song, set in the remote key of D♭ major, illustrates the longing for relief from worldly woes, leading without a break to the response in the Finale.

It is divided into two large parts, the second of which begins with the entry of the chorus and whose form is governed by the text of this movement.

The first part is instrumental, and very episodic, containing a wide variety of moods, tempi and keys, with much of the material based on what has been heard in the previous movements, although it also loosely follows sonata principles.

The second theme is a long orchestral recitative, which provides the music for the alto solo in the choral section.

This long opening section serves to introduce a number of themes, which will become important in the choral part of the finale.

The orchestral recitative is fully recapitulated, and is accompanied this time by offstage interruptions from a band of brass and percussion (which some had explained as the apocalypse's seven trumpets).

The horn call is expanded into Mahler's "Great Summons", a transition into the choral section.

The choral section is organized primarily by the text, using musical material from earlier in the movement.

E♭ suddenly reenters with the text "Sterben werd' ich um zu leben," and a proper cadence finally occurs on the downbeat of the final verse, with the entrance of the heretofore silent organ (marked volles Werk, full organ) and with the choir instructed to sing mit höchster Kraft (with highest power).

Mahler went so far as to purchase actual church bells for performances, finding all other means of achieving this sound unsatisfactory.

Mahler wrote of this movement: "The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don't know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.

[15] Mahler omitted the final four lines of this poem and wrote the rest himself (beginning at "O glaube").

With wings which I have won for myself, In love's fierce striving, I shall soar upwards To the light which no eye has penetrated!

It was bought from the Mengelberg Foundation in 1984 by entrepreneur Gilbert Kaplan, who specialised in conducting the symphony as an amateur.