This notion plagued Gustav Mahler throughout much of his adult life. As he grappled with the «Curse of the Ninth» – a superstition that no Romantic composer outlived their ninth symphony – he was also dealing with the diagnosis of a terminal heart condition and grieving the death of his young daughter. Yet under this fatalistic shadow, Mahler’s thirst for life grew. Symphony N˚ 9 is a life-affirming farewell to all that Mahler loved about the natural world and the human spirit.
