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Mahler once said “A symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.” In the 9th, his last completed score to be publicly performed, Mahler takes us on a sweeping musical and spiritual journey. It contains the full spectrum of emotions, and culminates in a transcendent finale in which, in the words of his protégé Bruno Walter, Mahler “peacefully bids farewell to the world.”

Or does he? Although diagnosed with a heart condition in 1907 and told to restrict the hiking, cycling, and swimming he loved, the next four years before his death in 1911 were hardly the tale of an invalid. During this period, he conducted concerts throughout Europe, assumed directorship of the New York Philharmonic, and composed Das Lied von der Erde – and those are simply highlights of those years. Upon completion of the 9th, he plunged headlong into work on a 10th Symphony. While it’s a popular notion to see the 9th as valedictory, it’s important to remember that Mahler was simply grappling with the same questions of life and death that preoccupied him throughout his creative life. According to a long-time friend, the first piece he composed - at the age of six, no less - was “a polka, to which he added a funeral march as an introduction.”

While the 9th ended up being Mahler’s last completed musical sendoff, it was by no means his only one, having been preceded by the Das Lied von der Erde with its 30-minute movement called “The Farewell,” and followed by the incomplete 10th Symphony. Listening to the 9th as more than Mahler’s departure from the world offers the chance to hear even more of his all-embracing musical vision.

Experience one of the most profound symphonies of all time with AMFS Music Director Robert Spano conducting the Aspen Festival Orchestra!