Budapest Festival Orchestra by Mahler, Sa. 21 Jan. 2023, Ab (2023/2023), Dirigat Iván Fischer, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Budapest, Ungarn

"Ninth symphony”. The number and genre together bring to mind Beethoven's final such work - and to the minds of composers in the 19th and 20th centuries as well. Mahler dreaded the ominous number, but his urge to compose got the better of his superstition. In 1907 he was diagnosed with heart problems, and he lost his four-year-old daughter as well, causing him inconsolable trauma. Despite all this, he remained active, both as a conductor and as a composer. He spent his summers in the Tyrolean mountains, where he produced his Das Lied von der Erde, the Ninth Symphony and a movement for his Tenth Symphony. These three - none of which were performed in Mahler's lifetime - are often referred to together as a trilogy. The gigantic first movement of the Ninth begins innocently but intensifies into cacophony; this is followed by a movement assembled from dances: a folksy ländler and a waltz. Then comes Mahler's most modern music, the Rondo-Burlesque, and, finally, the vision of the afterworld; its ethereal sound closing the solemn and touching work.