The First Symphony, like many works from his author, has an autobiographic component as well an evident programatic air. Composed at the same time of his reconstruction of Carl Maria von Weber's unfinished opera Die Drei Pintos, it was premiered in Budapest on the 20th of November 1889 (a little bit after he was appointed as its Opera Musical Director) with the title of "Symphonic Poem". Mahler remove its fifth movement, the named Blumine, in an attempt to polished the structure of the work, showing it as Symphony (with the subtitle of Titan) in Weimar, on the 20th of June 1894.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Claudio Abbado
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