Mahler, Gustav: Symphonie Nr. 9

Mahler’s Ninth sings of beauty, love and impermanence “World! Farewell!” noted Mahler above the final measures. His last completed symphony embraces the world of yesterday, while pushing the door wide open to the modern age. The composition, created in a “mad urgency and haste,” had already posed puzzles for his copyists. While Mahler was able to clarify some of them already in the engraver’s model, others remained unsolved. Performance and printing had to be left to posterity. The text-critical edition offers interpreters for the first time a reliable foundation for what is definitely completed, and what must be considered as unfinished, open, questionable. Among the special challenges of the Ninth are Mahler’s innumerable bowing marks in the string parts, which Otto Klemperer described as “partly unfeasible,” and the open question of the harp scoring, for which Bruno Walter found a convincing solution at the world premiere. Finally an edition that not only reflects the orchestral practice of Mahler’s time, but also utilizes it for today’s needs. Helpful notes in the score and practical solutions in the parts are owed to the cooperation with experienced conductors and orchestral musicians.