It is the expression of an extraordinary love for this Earth, the longing to live peacefully on it, to enjoy nature at her deepest depths - before death comes. For it comes, irresistibly [In a letter to his wife, fellow composer Alban Berg refers to the first movement of Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony. ] .

In May 1911, the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler died, leaving two completed but unperformed works: the symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) and the Ninth Symphony. Both of these works were given their first performances by Mahler's close friend and prot é g é , the conductor Bruno Walter .

Mahler was rather superstitious about writing a 'Ninth' symphony, fearing that, like Beethoven and Bruckner before him, it