Symphony No. 10 & Das Lied von der Erde

Daniel Barenboim and the Berliner Philharmoniker

One of the world's most legendary orchestras, the Berliner Philharmoniker, will be led by Daniel Barenboim on the final night of the Mahler Festival. 'The Tenth is and remains music of the future,' the legendary pianist and conductor says of Mahler's swan song. He also conducts the impressive non-symphony Das Lied von der Erde.

Das Lied von der Erde and the Tenth symphony

The world is turning - roughly the tenor of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. In texts inspired by Chinese poems, life is seen as a continuous stage of transition. In both this work and the Tenth Symphony, the idea of mortality played a major role. Mahler knew he was incurably ill, and had also lost his infant daughter. He had lost everything and had to 'learn to walk like a newborn again', he wrote to a friend. That did not come to pass. Of the Tenth Symphony, he completed only the stirring Adagio, performed tonight by the Berliner Philharmoniker.