Mahler’s “Resurrection” is one of the most stunning and cathartic symphonies in the repertoire. Once denounced as overblown and unlistenable, it is now a beloved part of modern culture and is often played during troubled times. Mahler envisioned it as a metaphysical musing on life, death, and resurrection—not in a doctrinal sense, but in the individual’s struggle for hope and meaning. It presents a tension between nostalgia for a vanishing Romantic universe (represented by the retrospective second and fourth movements) and a new world of turbulence and irony. Along with other Mahler symphonies (notably the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh), it forecasts the postmodern volatility of contemporary music and its constant switching from light to dark, open-hearted lyricism to stinging irony. The first movement is a gripping funeral march with contrasting elements, its dark drama played out on a large scale. The next three are shorter, including a charming ländler, a sardonic scherzo, and an eloquent song, “Primal Light.” The choral finale is even more epic than the first movement; a “colossal” structure (in Mahler’s words), it recapitulates themes from the earlier movements, brings in a chorus and soloists, and builds to a sonorous ending replete with bells, gongs, organ, and voices.