At Carnegie Hall on today’s date in 1908, Gustav Mahler conducted the New York Symphony, the 200-voice Oratorio Society chorus and two vocal soloists in the American premiere of his Symphony No. 2, his Resurrection Symphony.
These days, Mahler’s Second ranks among his most popular works. But how was this new music received by New Yorkers back in 1908? An unsigned review in the New York Daily Tribune noted:
“It was by demonstrations of far more than mere politeness that the large audience found vent for its feelings of interest and pleasure in this new music. ... After the Schubertian second movement, there was long continued applause, and at the close of the composition … there was cheering and waving of handkerchiefs until Mr. Mahler was compelled to appear several times to bow his thanks and appreciation.”
As for the music itself, the review opined: “Of the beauty and insight of certain episodes, there can be no doubt. … There seems, however, a lack of significant and commanding originality. It is more cerebral than passionate, more intellectual than compellingly emotional.”
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection"); New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein, cond.