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An intimate and revealing reading of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, presented in a version for chamber orchestra. This adaptation by Iain Farrington accentuates the transparency and lyricism of a work in which Mahler, on the verge of silence, captured his profound love for life. The result is a close dialogue between soloists that transforms the monumental into an emotional and human experience.
Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony is one of the most moving works in the symphonic repertoire. Written in the final years of his life, it has sometimes been mistakenly associated with a funeral farewell. Numerous studies and testimonies, such as those by Alban Berg and Leonard Bernstein, agree that Mahler did not write his Ninth as a symphony about death, but as a profoundly vital work, a meditation on life and its beauty, a declaration of love for life in all its fragility, beauty, and contradiction.
This chamber version, conducted by Iain Farrington, heir to the spirit of Schoenberg and his Society for Private Musical Performances, allows us to rediscover Mahler's writing with surprising clarity. Far from losing its power, the reduction clearly reveals the solo character and the richness of the counterpoint, bringing the listener closer to the emotional intimacy of the work. The choice to retain the original instruments in a reduced cast preserves the orchestral color, opening up a new expressive dimension in which each performer is a protagonist.
A symphony of farewell that, in its most stripped-down form, continues to speak to us about life with a deep and luminous voice.