It was a single movement that became a worldwide hit before the whole symphony was even remotely known and appreciated: the famous “Adagietto” from Mahler’s Fifth. It became unexpectedly popular as the slightly morbid film music in Visconti’s visually stunning Thomas Mann film “Death in Venice”. The entire symphony is now one of Mahler’s most popular works, and that’s no coincidence: “Every note is full of life,” the composer said, and unlike his earlier symphonies, there is no need for singing here either: “Everything is said purely musically .» And everything is of the highest emotional expressiveness, everything is interwoven, also from a stylistic point of view: The most complicated structures arise from the most banal approaches, lovely melody lines develop from themes that sound like an outcry. In short: an incomparable cosmos. The emotional heart of the symphony, which began in 1901, is undoubtedly the aforementioned “Adagietto”, a light, extremely subtle string song – and a tender declaration of love by Gustav Mahler to Alma Schindler, whom he married in March 1902.