RCM Symphony Orchestra: Mahler 9

This deeply moving work is characterised by its poignant tone; the Austrian summer light that infused Mahler’s earlier music has attenuated to a sliver of wintry sunshine, illuminating the past as the shadows lengthen. Alban Berg wrote that the first movement is a valedictory ’expression of an exceptional fondness for this earth, the longing to live in peace on it, to enjoy nature to its depths’.