Mahler
Symphony No. 9
Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä
BIS BIS-2476 (CD/SACD) 81:32 mins
Towards the end of their lives, some of the great composers seemed to develop a sixth sense that allowed them to gaze onto otherworldly vistas of imagination – a kind of ‘beyond’, exploring new and remote musical territory that only they could perceive. and . In the same company are Mahler’s ‘song symphony’ (The Song of the Earth) and his Ninth Symphony – his last completed work before his death in 1911, aged just 50.