Steve Schwartz wrote replies to me:

>What's the full duration of a rest with a fermata? I ask, because in the
>first movement of Mahler's second, measure 4, there's a fermata over an
>eighth rest in the cellos and basses, as well as a fermata over a whole
>note in the first violins and violas at the same measure.

Depends, really, on the performer.  I'm not familiar with that score so
I can't answer, but things like that, again, are sometimes mathematical
to make things work out right.

>>Rests between sections (or before..ahem..those silly NO I WON'T SAY THE
>>WORD signs) must be observed and counted like any other.
>
>Some of them, yes.  Others, no. It depends: for example, the famous pause
>between the first two movements of Mahler's 2nd - "Hier folgt eine Pause
>von mindestens 5 Minuten" (here follows a pause of at least 5 minutes).

Ah, but that's not a rest!  A rest is a musical notation, with a rhythmic
value.  This is a pause, a written stage direction, if you will.  And, I
might add, a fairly exact one.

p.s. instead of my usual sig, I'd like to put the URL of a good friend
of mine, Pat Meadows, who runs the excellent International Festival of
Deia, here in Mallorca.
http://www.soundpost.org

David Runnion