Premieres
- Premiere of second, third and sixth movements only: 1897, Berlin, conducted by Felix Weingartner.
- Premiere of the complete symphony: June 9, 1902, Krefeld, conducted by the composer.
- Dutch premiere: October 17, 1903 in Arnhem, five days later the composer himself conducted the Amsterdam premiere with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
- American premiere: May 9, 1914 at the Cincinnati May Festival conducted by Ernst Kunwald
- New York Philharmonic premiere: February 28, 1922, New York City, conducted by Willem Mengelberg.
- United Kingdom premiere (BBC broadcast): November 29, 1947, BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult.
- UK first live public performance, February 28, 1961, St Pancras Town Hall, conducted by Bryan Fairfax
- First radio studio recording: Hermann Scherchen, Hilde Rössel-Majdan (contralto), choirs, Vienna SymphonyOrchestra, 1950.
- Commercial recording premiere: F. Charles Adler, Hilde Rössel-Majdan (contralto), choirs, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, 1951.
- Singapore premiere: January 26, 2008, Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lan Shui.
- Thailand premiere: July 21, 2010, Mahisorn Hall, Bangkok, Siam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Somtow Sucharitkul
- Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada premiere: May 5, 2012, Conexus Arts Centre, Regina, Regina Symphony Orchestra conducted by Victor Sawa
The 1947 UK premiere was not recorded by the BBC, but an off-air recording was made on acetate discs. These were transferred complete onto CD in 2008 and now represent the earliest extant recording of Mahler's Third Symphony.
Read more about this topic: Symphony No. 3 (Mahler)