A Life-enhancing Work
Gustav Mahler's
Symphony No 9 -
impresses
GERALD FENECH'... Harding's handling of the inner angst of the music is faultlessly revealing.'
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Maybe one of the most enigmatic of symphonies and undoubtedly the most valedictory, Mahler's Ninth was composed over two summers at the composer's Alpine retreat in Toblach between 1908 and 1909 in the wake of several tragic events that befell Mahler in his last years. In 1907, his eldest daughter Maria Anna died of scarlet fever aged only four, and soon after Mahler himself was diagnosed with the heart condition which would finally kill him in 1911 on the eve of his fiftieth birthday. Furthermore in that same year the composer resigned his position as director of the Vienna Court Opera, a role he had loved and cherished despite some very unjust criticism...
Copyright © 14 April 2018
Gerald Fenech,
Gzira, Malta
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