BBC Proms - 2009 - Prom 05: Mahler's 9th Symphony - 20/07/2009

From the Royal Albert Hall, Bernard Haitink conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 9. Begun in the summer of 1909, Mahler's last completed symphony was written at a time of crisis, following the loss of a daughter, his forced resignation from the Vienna Court Opera, the diagnosis of his own fatal heart disease and the breakdown of his marriage. Yet while the first movement is permeated by premonitions of death and the last fades away into nothingness, the enduring impression is one of resigned, even joyful acceptance of man's fate. One of the world's great Mahler interpreters, Haitink celebrates both his 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his UK debut in 2009.