Mahler - Symphony No. 9

Mahler - Symphony No. 9

Soviet-born conductor Semyon Bychkov leads the Czech Philharmonic in a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9, recorded at Rudolfinum, Dvořák Hall, Prague in April 2019. The Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Czech composer and conductor Otakar Ostrčil gave the first performance of this work in Prague in November 1918. The period when Mahler created his Ninth Symphony presented an important turning point in the composer's life. In 1907 he decided to end his ten-year tenure as artistic director of the prestigious Vienna Court Opera and to depart for America. His Symphony No. 9 tends to be viewed as Mahler’s farewell to this world. Whichever way it was intended, it is not only the composer’s last completed work: more generally, it was the last word in the symphonic genre for the entire nineteenth century.