Mahler: Symphony No. 9 in D Major (Live)

In 1908 Mahler, diagnosed with a heart murmur, started composing his Ninth Symphony—the last to be completed before his death in 1911. Possibly its opening rheumatic low cello-and-horn pulses echo the composer’s effortful heartbeat; they certainly make a doleful contrast to the balm-like opening string theme, beautifully played here by the Concertgebouw with just an appropriate hint of Viennese swoop as it reaches its first climax. Myung-Whun Chung embraces rather more of the symphony’s features than usual in characterizing the work. While overall there is the expected sense of leave-taking, the instrumental solos appear not as incidental detail but as distinct characters who affect the unfolding drama. And the central movements, too often depicted as bitter portrayals of human life, have their mitigating moments of warmth: the rustic “Ländler” second movement has beguiling (drink-induced?) euphoria, as well as brutish roughness. And, midway through the “Rondo-Burleske,” the solo trumpet melody has a real sense of hope before being mocked through the rest of the movement—which surely gives point to the strings’ anguished recollection of that theme at the start of the finale, before its transformation and gradual fade to the end.