Mahler’s Symphony No. 9

Stricken by the death of his oldest daughter at the age of four and reeling from a diagnosis of a serious heart condition, Mahler retreated to a cabin in the mountains to write what would become his final works, among them the shattering Ninth Symphony. From its tenderly beautiful, hushed opening of harp, horns, and strings through the fevered Rondo to its gossamer finish, the Ninth is literally and figuratively a cry from a wounded heart—and a p...