How to fix Mahler's second

[BBMmk2]

As Louis Andriessen made a synthesis of ALL nine Beethoven symphonies lasting 11 minutes, a Mahler synthesis shouldn't be that difficult

I didn'tknow that Roehre!! Thank you!!

[Uncle Monty]

I had a similar idea for Shoshakovich Symphony no.7. Keep mvt 1, mvt 2, remove mvt 3 (already have an intermezzo, why follow it with a 20 minute slow mvt?).
3VS

I must protest! I have always thought the 3rd movement of Shostakovich 7 is the best bit. If you really want to cut the Symphony, the first movement would seem the prime candidate. We've already got the point long before it ends. Or am I missing the point?

[3rd Viennese School]

Yes you are! The war theme returns at the end quietly, to tell us that " It's all peaceful again but the final bars give a distant rumbling. The war is not over." (Dmitri's words)

The climax (recap ) of mvt 1 is a reversal of the expositon. What was happy is now depressing, what was nice is now angry etc.

But in the middle of the symphony everyone seems to go to sleep. They wake up gradually at the start of mvt 4....
3VS