Symphony No. 5

“Symphony No. 5” marks a turning point in Gustav Mahler's life. For the first time after his “Symphony No. 1”, he turned back to writing purely instrumental music. He began working on it in the summer of 1901 at the earliest. In November that year, he also met Alma Schindler, became engaged to her in December, and married her in March 1902.
Like probably no other movement from Mahler's symphonies, the "Adagietto" from “Symphony No. 5” is known to a wider audience and has also been used several times as film music. The "Adagietto" was Gustav Mahler's "declaration of love for Alma," the conductor and contemporary witness Willem Mengelberg noted at the beginning of this movement in his copy of the score: "Instead of a letter, he sent this to her as a manuscript, without adding a single word. She understood and wrote to him: He should come!!!"

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