Based on the poem Todtenfeier by Adam Mickiewicz.

With deeply serious and solemn expression. With this funeral march and the eloquence of its thematic material, the power of its architectural structures, the emotional thrust of its inspiration and its concision of thought, Mahler assumes for the first time the full stature of a symphonist in the great German tradition. The shadow of Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) hovers over the opening bars with a long tremolando and a first subject on the lower strings that is 43 bars long. Yet the composer’s distinctive voice asserts itself in such features as the dominant-tonic melodic intervals and the alternation between major and minor.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 2 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley.