Dear @gmm,
I thoroughly enjoy this piece! I am afraid my review will be kind of messy though! I really won't comment much on your orchestration since it's perfect for me. I want to cry in many moments for its grandness, e.g. in around 5:50 and 15:00! I am really thankful that you post this here since it's an honour for us.
The opening motive provides good chance to use quintal harmony! Just inside the B section there are many motives apart from the motive 2 with the cello D-Bb-C-A and harp A-Bb-E-F#-A. I love the saturation of motive here! I love the outburst in around 3:10! I like that beguiling sound in around 4:10. Very grand in 5:10 using the opening A motive and with the trumpet it really sounds like John Williams here! You like using the octatonic modulation a lot. I freakingly love the C section!!!!! Very Bartokian and Stranvinskian here with the punching rhythm! 9:32 really reminds me the middle section of the Sacrificial Dance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring! The D section is utterly beautiful as well and the climax in around 15:00 is magnanimous.
The opening section especially with the uprising fifth really reminds me the opening of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. In 4:13 it reminds me of the augmented chord in Mahler's Fourth, the Scherzo. That passage starting from 9:38 reminds me the middle section of the Sacrificial Dance of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. The tone clash, irregular meter, rhythm, accents all remind me of the Stravinskian passage.
Very well developed and very noticeable throughout the movement!
As a standalone piece it will be a beautiful piece with different pictures. I think it's quite descriptive here rather than narrative for a first movement of a grand symphony, and I am not sure your overall picture of this symphony is. I guess it will be quite Mahlerian with this scope, and it's quite typical for Mahler to have numerous of ideas in the first movement to be developed later, so it depends.
For me my favourite part is the introductions of all the themes particularly the C section. I also like your combination of Bassoon and Piano in around 6:40. My least favourite part is the return of the A section 15:50 and 21:37 since it's quite similar to initial appearance. Also after the grandeur in 15:00 I really don't like how it falls back to beguiling atmosphere again! But it can be really effective as sparks of light appear and disappear, as in the second movement of Mahler's Fifth. Section D is both my favourite and least favourite part here. It's utterly beautiful and I utterly enjoy it, but formally its beauty hinders the progress of the movement for me especially for a first movement. I would love to have a more forward going section!
I think it's effective as a rondo form but a bit too long for me. It links with the descriptive nature of the movement. Your overall form is A-B-A-C-A-D-A-B-A-coda, I feel like there are many beautiful portraits here but the linkage between them is not the strongest even with the coherence of motive. But since it's introductory in the character I think the arrangement is fine if the later movements can successfully resolve the uneasiness throughout the movement with strong coherence. Linked with the Mahlerian conception of a Symphony this will be perfectly fine. I want the C section to feature more since it's really brilliant! It's kind of compensated at the coda but I want more!!!!
I would like to know if the movement has some sort of programme or not, since this will better explain the usage of rondo form and how it will be linked with the later movements!
I sort of comment more on the formal issue of the movement, but it is such an enjoyable piece of music. Bravo on this!!
Henry