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Â鶹ԼÅÄ Proms 2023: Sir Simon Rattle’s final UK performance as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra: Mahler’s Ninth Symphony

Presented by Kate Molleson, from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Singers
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

In Mahler’s Ninth Symphony the composer – who would not live to hear its premiere – bid ‘farewell to all whom he loved’. The words ‘Leb’ wohl!’ (‘farewell’) are written onto the score itself, transformed into a theme that becomes the heartbeat of the whole work. It’s a poignant choice for Sir Simon Rattle’s final UK performance as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra. Death and life collide in a symphony haunted by loss but urgently clinging to dance and song. The finale, however, looks beyond, closing with a vision of distant hills where the sun is shining.