It is this work that the famous conductor Pierre Boulez chose to direct in March 2005 to celebrate his eightieth birthday at the initiative of Daniel Barenboim, the musical director of the Staatskapelle in Berlin.

At that date, the French conductor had already worked on Mahler for several years, since in 1996 he recorded all of the symphonies over a period of ten years (for Deutsche Grammophon). On March 26, 2005, in the concert hall of the Berlin Philharmonic, Pierre Boulez, with the soprano Diana Damrau, the mezzo Petra Lang and the Staatskapelle of Berlin performed a memorable version of Symphony No. 2.