SLOVENIAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Programme:
G. Mahler, Symphony No. 9 in D Major

The score of the Ninth Symphony, Mahler’s last complete work, composed in 1909, bears the subtitle ‘Instrumental Poem about Death’. In terms of theme and mood it reflects the composer’s inner conflict between his passionate desire for life and the certainty of his approaching death. Arnold Schoenberg characterised the work as follows: “In the Ninth Symphony the composer barely speaks any longer as a subject. It is as if someone else stands behind this work, someone whom Mahler simply used as his herald. The symphony is not written in the first person. It brings an objective understanding of the beauty that can be felt only by those who are able to renounce sensuous, animal warmth and feel at home in the spiritual cold.”