Donald Macleod explores Mahler's final years at the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic.

Gustav Mahler rose from humble beginnings on the fringes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to become one of the most powerful figures in the musical establishment. Nowadays his symphonies are almost guaranteed to fill concert halls, but during his lifetime Mahler made his name as a conductor.

Mahler left the Vienna Court Opera to take up a lucrative position at the Metropolitan Opera, and later another at the New York Philharmonic. He would spend his final years travelling back and forth across the Atlantic and working on his most ambitious symphonies. A moment of personal crisis would colour the composition of his last work.

Symphony No 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) (Part I)
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, soloists and choruses, conducted by Georg Solti

Mahler, completed Deryck Cooke: Symphony No 10 (1st mvt) (excerpt)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle

Symphony No 9 (4th mvt)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein

Producer: Callum Thomson. Show less