Klaus Mäkelä conducts Mahler 9

Show & Culture

Who are we but mere mortals? This was a question that preoccupied Gustav Mahler for almost his entire adult life. Confronted by the curse of the ninth—a superstitious legend claiming that no Romantic composer would survive their ninth symphony—he also faced a grim medical diagnosis and the death of his daughter. Yet Mahler's appetite for life grew in this valley of tears. His Symphony No. 9 is both a farewell and a tribute to the beauty of the world and humanity.