No sooner had Mahler completed his First Symphony than he began work on the Second. The first movement was finished already in 1888, and in 1891, by which time it carried the title ‘Totenfeier’ (‘Funeral Rites’), he played it on the piano to Hans von Bülow. Mahler revered Bülow, so was profoundly hurt when Bülow was dismissive, but by 1893 he had three movements ready and was searching for inspiration for a finale. Ironically it was the death of that great pianist and conductor in February 1894 which provided it: at the funeral the choir sang Klopstock's Resurrection Ode. Immediately Mahler knew how the symphony would end, and only a few months later the huge work was finished. However, as usual with Mahler, it was revised a number of times over the following years.

sources

A  Autograph score (1894), magnificently published in facsimile by the Kaplan Foundation, New York in 1986. Many revisions were made later, however

B  Manuscript score written by a copyist, with corrections in Mahler's hand, Stichvorlage for C

C  First edition of original version, published in 1897 by Hofmeister, Leipzig (taken over by Weinberger)

D  Revised edition of original version, published by Weinberger (date uncertain); this was (inadvertently) reprinted by Boosey & Hawkes in 1943, then again in miniature format by Universal in 1952 (both publishers at the time unaware that D had been superseded by E)

E  First edition score of final (1909) version, published by Universal Edition, Vienna in 1910

Ur  Urtext full score edited by Erwin Ratz, published by Universal in 1971 with bar numbers, but since these are absent in all other sources (including the parts) the present report uses rehearsal figures as reference points