Symphony No. 1 (Mahler)

Symphony No. 1
by Gustav Mahler
Mahler at the time of his First Symphony
Key	D major
Composed	1887–1888: Leipzig
Published	1898 (1898) Josef Weinberger 1906 (1906) Universal Edition 1967 (1967) Universal Edition (critical edition)
Movements	4
Premiere
Date	20 November 1889 (1889-11-20)
Location	Budapest
Conductor	Gustav Mahler
Performers	Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra

The Symphony No. 1 in D major by Gustav Mahler was mainly composed between late 1887 and March 1888, though it incorporates music Mahler had composed for previous works. It was composed while Mahler was second conductor at the Leipzig Opera in Germany. Although in his letters Mahler almost always referred to the work as a symphony, the first two performances described it as a symphonic poem and as a tone poem in symphonic form, respectively. The work was premièred at the Vigadó Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary, in 1889, but was not well-received.^[1] Mahler made some major revisions for the second performance, given at Hamburg, Germany, in October 1893; further alterations were made in the years prior to the first publication, in late 1898. Some modern performances and recordings give the work the title Titan, despite the fact that Mahler only used this label for the second and third performances, and never after the work had reached its definitive four-movement form in 1896.

Mahler conducted more performances of this symphony than of any of his later works.^[2]