Robert Stumpf asked:

>I mean, if you had to select one of his symphonies as "typical" as perhaps
>an introduction to his 'sound world' which one and why?

I think M1 and M5 are "typical." M1 for its innovation, yet all the while
redolent of the Wunderhorn songs.  And you want sound world? There's
nothing that proclaims a unique sound world like the start of M1.  M5 for
the "totally new style" of composing, yet containing a funeral march, the
Adagietto, some of the most picturesque vignettes in all of music, and the
triumphant brass chorale at the end, which gives the lie to any talk about
the "neurotic" Mahler.  I'm in the middle of the Shipway M5 on my way to
work.

Mitch Friedfeld