Mahler Symphony No. 9 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide

The third movement, in the form of a rondo, displays the final maturation of Mahler’s contrapuntal skills. It opens with a dissonant theme in the trumpet which is treated in the form of a double fugue. The following five-note motif introduced by strings in unison recalls of Symphony No. 5, Movement 2: Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz.There are two similar fugues in the movement, of which the final is unique in that it presents the subject in subsequent fifths instead of the fifth and th...