Symphony No. 2

Arrangement for two pianos – PT2p41

One of the fascinating features of Hermann Behn's arrangement of Mahler's Second Symphony is that it accurately reflects the text of the work as it was in the summer and autumn of 1895, i.e. before the first complete performance, which took place in December of that year. Inevitably it preserves readings that were subsequently superseded, and the most most striking of these is a countermelody that originally played a fairly prominent role in the texture of the second movement:

facsimile of page 41 of Hermann Behn's arrangement of Mahler's Second Symphony for two pianos, four hands

Fig. 1

Mahler, Symphony No. 2, arr. two pianos by Hermann Behn (Leipzig, 1896), p. 41

Second movement, bb. 42–9

There were at least five further printings of the arrangement up to the Anschluß, but the text was never revised, so continued to transmit this long-abandoned reading, and as a result the countermelody is actually quoted in at least two later commentaries on the work:

facsimile of a music example from Herman Teibler: 'Symphonie C moll', in Meisterführer Nr. 10, Mahlers Symphonien (Berlin, n.d. [c. 1910]), page 43

Fig. 2

Herman Teibler: 'Symphonie C moll', in Meisterführer Nr. 10, Mahlers Symphonien (Berlin, n.d. [c. 1910]), 43

facsimile of text and music examples from Richard Specht, Gustav Mahler (Berlin and Leipzig, 1913), page 230

Fig. 3

Richard Specht, Gustav Mahler (Berlin and Leipzig, 1913), 230