Symphony No. 4 in G major

Composed between 1899 and 1901 and premiered in Munich in November 1901 under the composer's direction to a confused and divided reception, the Fourth Symphony is the most approachable and most frequently performed of Mahler's nine completed symphonies and the one that most clearly inhabits the world of the Wunderhorn songs from which its finale text is drawn. Its four movements — a luminous Bedächtig, nicht eilen; a macabre Gemächlich (with the concertmaster playing a retuned 'fiddle of death'); a transcendent Ruhevoll Poco adagio of supreme lyrical beauty; and the soprano finale 'Das himmlische Leben' (Heavenly Life) — project a vision of childhood innocence and heavenly bliss that is deceptive in its simplicity. The symphony's chamber-scaled orchestration (no trombones, no tuba) and its inward spiritual quality set it apart from the monumental scale of its neighbours, the Third and Fifth Symphonies.