The feelings he had for Marion helped inspire his First Symphony, which he wrote in the spring of 1888 – purportedly in the span of six weeks. During this time, Mahler was said to have been in a state of “almost feverish composing,” where he recounted that it “came gushing out of me like a mountain torrent!” The Symphony premiered a year later on 20 November, 1889 designated as a “Symphonic Poem in Two Sections,” presented in five movements. According to Mahler, the premiere was a complete disaster. While the first two movements were met warmly, critics were confused with the radical musical ideas expressed within the final two movements. Scathed by the First’s reception, Mahler reportedly locked its manuscript in a drawer for three years,
