Mahler - Symphony No. 4 - for ensemble or chamber orchestra and soprano solo, arranged by Ronald Kornfeil

Even in its original form, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 is his smallest symphony: the 3 or 4 wind instruments and the complete omission of trombones and tuba seem relatively sparse in view of his other symphonic instrumentation lists.

Two aspects were particularly important to Mahler: Firstly, the ‘clarity’ of instrumentation, in which he believed he was ahead of contemporary and earlier composers. Secondly, he needed the large orchestral apparatus mainly to make visible ‘more and more colours and ever more delicate and subtle modulations’ within the spectrum of the timbral rainbow. Beyond that, gigantic sound bodies naturally corresponded to the taste of the time.

In my arrangement, only instruments used by Mahler himself in this symphony are used – in reduced numbers; filling instruments are completely omitted. Also with this smaller instrumentation, a balanced and broad palette of colours can be achieved. Mahler's works also contain a wealth of chamber music moments in the original. Where the arrangement had to make major interventions in the instrumentation due to the reduced orchestration, the audible result should nevertheless come as close as possible to the original in order to preserve the specific soundscape of Mahler's Fourth.