When I was eighteen years old, I was invited to join a chorus to sing Mahler’s Second Symphony at the BBC Proms. At this point, I had no idea who Mahler was and I didn’t really see what the big fuss was about – he’s just another 19th-century composer who wrote some symphonies, right?

Wrong.

I swiftly realised after the first rehearsal that, to put it bluntly, Mahler is awesome. Obviously, I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on this, but there is certainly good reason that Mahler’s symphonies, especially his triumphant Second, have become some of the best-loved and most frequently performed symphonies in concert halls around the world today.

But what is it about Mahler 2 that has made such an impression on audiences across the world? My personal answer to that question would have to be the Finale. The last four minutes of the Second are undoubtedly some of the most awe-inspiring minutes of music Mahler ever composed, or in my opinion, that has ever been composed. It never fails to send chills down my spine, and every hair stands on end when I hear the singers chime in with the famous chorus, achieving the glory and splendour of transcendence, redemption, and resurrection. Even Mahler seems to agree as he commented, ‘The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don’t know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.’