Season Two

Season Two
Rise Again
Mahler's Second Symphony

Season 2 focuses on Mahler’s Second Symphony in C minor (1888-1894), delving into Mahler’s gigantic musical exploration of life, death, and what lies beyond. Each episode is devoted to a movement of the symphony.

Listen to the Season 2 trailer here:

Stream the full episodes below, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Season 2 of Embrace Everything – The World of Gustav Mahler was made possible by a generous grant from the Kaplan Foundation Read more »

Episode 1: A Burning Denunciation of the Creator

Mahler’s Second Symphony begins with the funeral for the hero of his First Symphony. Read more »

Episode 2: A Sunbeam into Your Soul

For his Second Symphony, Mahler created a second movement he described as a memory, “a ray of sunlight, pure and cloudless, out of the hero’s life.” Read more »

Episode 3: Never Did a Sermon So Please the Fish

In the summer of 1893, Mahler wrote a song, entitled “St. Anthony of Padua’s Sermon to the Fish.” Read more »

Episode 4: O Little Red Rose

The fourth movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony is a delicate song for mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Read more »

Episode 5: With Wings I’ve Won for Myself

Mahler described the last movement of his Second Symphony, which includes two soloists and a chorus, as a colossal fresco of The Day of Judgement. Read more »

Season One - Mahler's First Symphony

Season 1 focuses on Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D major (1888), taking listeners back to the work’s origins in the street songs, folk tunes, and bugle calls of Mahler’s childhood. Listen here »

The Cast of Season 2

• James Lurie as the voice of Gustav Mahler.
• Laura Gragtmans as the voice of Mahler’s friend and confidante, Natalie Bauer-Lechner.
• Robert Fass as the voice of Siegfried Lipiner.

Conductors:
• Kent Nagano, Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Hamburg State Opera and Philharmonic
• Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony and New World Symphony

Musicians:
• Carter Brey, Principal Cello, New York Philharmonic
• Austin Howle, Principal Tuba, Montreal Symphony Orchestra
• Matthew McDonald, Principal Bass, Berlin Philharmonic
• Emmanuel Pahud, Principal Flute, Berlin Philharmonic
• Michael Sachs, Principal Trumpet, Cleveland Orchestra

Music scholars:
• Caroline Kita, Washington University in St. Louis
• Christine Lee Gengaro, Los Angeles City College
• Marilyn McCoy, Columbia University, New York

Literature scholars:
• Charles Kraszewski, King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
• Joanna Neilly, Oxford University

Composers:
• Matthew Aucoin
• D.D. Jackson