The next performance, the fourth, was at an all-Mahler concert in Berlin, on Monday, 16 March, 1896. This time, the symphony was given in the form we know it today, as the 'Symphony in D major'. Very few tickets were sold – most were given away – and the hall was half-empty. The concert started with Todtenfeier , described as the 'First movement of the Symphony in C minor for full orchestra' – soon to become the Second Symphony . This was followed by the Lieder eines fahrenden Gessellen , sung by the Dutch bass-baritone Anton Sistermanns. The audience responded warmly to both pieces, but booing started after the D major symphony's 'Funeral March'. The response of the Berlin critics was true to form. Typical was the view expressed in the Vossische Zeitung – The Finale of the First Symphony was multi-coloured, interminable, slipshod, vulgar...a succession of odds and ends disguised in a charlatanesque ornamentation of instrumental effects [Ibid, p.356. ] .

Mahler did not conduct the symphony again for two years. Despite its shaky start, it has become one of Mahler's best-loved and most performed symphonies.