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This week’s Classics with NOW piece is #Mahler’s Symphony No 5 - listen to our performance from April 2007 with Tadaaki Otaka here.

Symphony No. 5 was Mahler’s first solely instrumental symphony since Symphony No. 1, and was written in 1901-2 as he was falling in love with his future wife, Alma Schindler. The developing love story becomes clear throughout the piece as sombre marches and storms are overcome by music of light and hope, especially in the ‘Adagietto’, made famous in Visconti’s 1971 film Death in Venice.

Full of drama, intensity and tenderness all at once, Mahler’s Symphony No 5 is a true classic – enjoy!