Who doesn’t like riddles? The history of music is full of them. Suffice it to mention mediaeval and Renaissance canons or Baroque rhetorical figures hidden on various levels of a score. There are also musical-philosophical puzzles for which there is no simple solution. Perhaps this kind of test was what Gustav Mahler had in mind when he wrote in a letter to an Austrian writer and musicologist:

‘My Sixth will pose riddles that only a generation that has absorbed and digested my first five symphonies may hope to solve’.

Seemingly classical, in four movements, it is a monumental symphony in every respect. Written for the largest ensemble of the composer’s purely instrumental works, the Symphony No. 6 in A minor demands huge commitment from the performers and conductor, but does not spare the listener in any respect either. We do not find here too many of the catchy melodies familiar from Mahler’s previous works.

There is another unsolved riddle associated with this work, concerning the order in which the movements should be played. Originally, the gloomy first movement was to be followed by the frenzied Scherzo and then the melancholic Andante moderato. However, the score published on the basis of the version from the first performance had the two inner movements switched by the composer. It was only after Mahler’s death that his wife Alma pointed out that the original order was correct!