Die Parallelität der Entstehungsprozesse der ersten beiden Symphonien Gustav Mahlers: Instrumentation, Revision und Dirigierpraxis

As is well known, Gustav Mahler made many revisions to his First and Second Symphony after the completion of the autographs on the occasion of performances. This study focuses on these two symphonies in order to clarify his revising processes and features of revisions by deep analysis and by analysing and comparing of the autographs, the copies and the published scores with Mahler’s own handwritten annotations. In addition, the circumstances of Hamburg State Opera (Hamburger Stadttheater) also come up for discussion. There, Mahler conducted a lot of operas and orchestral works during the time when he composed and revised the two symphonies. In this article I demonstrate that the revising processes of these symphonies show the similar features of instrumental changes. Furthermore Mahler’s activities as a conductor in Hamburg had a large influence on his composing and revising processes