Gustav Mahler expanded the boundaries of symphonic music, transforming the orchestra and the human voice into vehicles for personal confession, philosophical reflection, and a musical vision extending from intimate experience to the conception of an entire world. Gustav Mahler was one of the defining figures of Late Romanticism and one of the composers who prepared the transition towards twentieth-century music. His creative output centres primarily on the symphony and the art song , two fields that he closely connected by incorporating the human voice, poetry, and philosophical reflection into the symphonic form. Although his catalogue is relatively limited in size, it possesses exceptional artistic concentration. Through large orchestral forces, extreme contrasts, meticulous orchestration, and an expressive language that ranges from the folk-like and ironic to the tragic and metaphysical, Mahler expanded the expressive and structural boundaries of the symphony . Symphonies ...