First performance of the movements 1-3 on March 4, 1895 in Berlin,
first complete performance on December 13, 1895 in Berlin,
each time conducted by Gustav Mahler

1. Allegro maestoso. Mit durchaus ernstem und feierlichem Ausdruck.
2. Andante moderato. Sehr gemächlich. Nie eilen.
3. In ruhig fließender Bewegung.
4. "Urlicht". Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht.
5. Im Tempo des Scherzo. Wild herausfahrend.

In October 1891, Mahler mentioned in a letter to the Editors Schott in Mainz for the first time a "Symphonic Poem" entitled Totenfeier (Funeral Rites). Probably he already worked on his Second Symphony in 1888 in Leipzig while he completed his First Symphony, and it seems that at first he wanted to publish the composition as an independent "Symphonic Poem" but one cannot exclude either that it was the other way round and he planned it as the first movement of a symphony before he intended to publish it as symphonic poem: The earliest manuscript score of the work bears the title Totenfeier/Symphony in c minor/first movement while the second line has been erased. Anyway it is certain that on August 8, on his new position in Prague, he completed the Totenfeier, and on September 10, 1888, he brought the full score to completion.

In 1891, Mahler became principal conductor of the Municipal Theatre in Hamburg. One day he played his composition on piano for the famous conductor Hans von Bülow (1830-1894). The reaction of Bülow was terrible: He held his hands over his ears and said: "If that's still music, then I do not understand anything about music." This was certainly an important reason why Mahler did not continue to work over the Second Symphony for another two years. In 1893 only, when Mahler for the first time passed the summer holidays on the Attersee, he started to work again over his Symphony in c minor. Until the end of July, the full scores of the second, third and fourth movements have been completed.

In March 1894, Mahler was present at the funerals of von Bülow in Hamburg; he then heard a religious poem by Klopstock, Resurrection: "It came over me like a flash, and everything stood clearly and unequivocally before my soul!" In the meantime, he had arranged the construction of the composition house on the banks of the Attersee where in the following summer he completed the last movement of the Second Symphony. The first performance of the complete work took place in 1895 in Berlin and can be marked as Mahler's effective debut as a composer: It is true that on one hand there was also "opposition, misunderstanding, reduction, mockery" as expressed Bruno Walter, "but the impression of the work's greatness and the originality, of the power of Mahler's nature was so deep that one can mark from this day on his rise as a composer."

The title of the symphony comes from the religious poem by Klopstock used in the fifth movement. "I entitled the first movement Totenfeier, and if you want to know, it's the hero of my symphony in d major (the first one) whom I bury here and whose life I catch from a higher point of view in a pure mirror. At the same time there is the big question: Why did you live? Why did you suffer? Is all this only a big terrible fun? We will have to find any answer to these questions if we should continue to live - yet even if we should continue to die! If ever somebody has heard this call in his life - he will have to give an answer, and I give that answer in the last movement", writes Mahler about this symphony.

The first movement is based on the rhythm of a funeral march and features music on a vast scale in the key of c minor representing the image of death. In October 1900, Mahler himself gave a programmatic analysis of his symphony (the publication of which he had later forbidden) in which he describes the first movement as follows: "We are standing at the graveside of a beloved being. For the last time his life, struggle, sufferings and aspirations are passing before our inner eye. And now, at this solemn moment which stirs the soul to its depths, when we cast off like a blanket all the confusion and triviality of every-day life, our heart is moved by a profoundly serious voice, which goes always unheard in the benumbing turmoil of the day: 'What now? What is life - and now this death? Is there a continuity? Is all this but a confused dream or is there a meaning to this life and to this death?'"
Apart from the small scale of the second subject, the movement is in traditional sonata form and in this respect far more classical than the first movement of the First Symphony. One of the resurrection themes of the final movement is hinted at in the development section. In the published score Mahler states that an interval of at least five minutes should be placed at the end of this movement.

The second movement i A-flat major is a in principle graceful and tender Andante moderato: "A blissful moment from the life of the beloved dead and a nostalgic reminiscence of his youth and his lost innocence." In the two central sections, a sense of vague anxiety wells within the beautiful dream-like atmosphere which is continually broken in an ironic way by excessive glissandi of the strings, especially the celli, but also by the pert echo of the flutes answering the pizzicato of the strings.

According to Mahler's instructions, the remaining three movements are played without a pause.

The third movement starts again in the key of c minor. After enormous drumbeats, a sarcastic bassoon and a mocking clarinet introduce an extensive paraphrase of the song Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt from the cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Especially fascinating is the alternating play between the graceful phrase of the B-flat clarinet and the strings on one hand and the sarcastic answer of the E-flat clarinet. "The spirit of impiety, of negation, has seized him. He looks upon the tumult around him and together with his childlike purity he loses the inner steadfastness which only love can give. He doubts himself and God; the world and life become phantoms. Disgust with all that is and grows grips him like an iron fist and drives him to cry out in despair."
The movement is a Scherzo partly funny, partly grotesque, determined by the wind instruments. Very unexpectedly comes the middle part, a triumph in D major, cries of joy of a splendid clarity from the trumpets and horns, gliding over into a romantic moonlight atmosphere: the dream-like beautiful climax of the movement before returning to the Fischpredigt. Once again the music raises into enthusiastic heights, a "cry of despair" (Mahler), in order to finally die down in c minor.

Without a pause, the voice of the contralto is heard: She sings the poem Urlicht from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. In the world's darkness, suddenly a mysterious light is shining. "The touching voice of naive faith sounds in his ear: 'I am from God and am striving to return to God'." Calm and contentment seem to spread, the atmosphere becomes very peaceful, it already seems that heaven's gates are opening.

From far sounds the call of the horns, a religious poem of the orchestra is heard and transforms into the march of the dead to the "last Trumpet". In a very concrete manner to be understood easily, Mahler composes the image of the Dies irae, the final judgement. Salvation already seems to be announced, but once more breaks through it the cry of the whole orchestra. In first tender hints the sounds of the final chorus are heard, hope seems to be emerging. Again the lonely call of the horns sounds from far, silence spreads, and out of its inscrutable depth, the chorus starts to sing mysteriously. Through the soprano tenderly emerging, the flashing violins and the solo trumpet, a vision of the apotheosis appears on the horizon for the first time. "To bloom again are you sown." Death is not the end, but a new beginning: "Arise, yes, you will arise from the dead, my heart! I shall die, so as to live!" In brightly shining beauty never reached before, the chorus and the orchestra, accompanied by organ and bells, conclude this magnificent symphony in euphoria.