London Philharmonic Orchestra: Jurowski conducts Mahler

When Gustav Mahler began his Ninth Symphony he knew that he was living on borrowed time, and he poured everything he had into some of the 20th century’s most poignant, powerful and heartbreakingly sincere music – in every sense, the ultimate romantic symphony. Vladimir Jurowski guides us through a glowing world of hymn tunes, Viennese waltzes, half-remembered songs and distant trumpets, before the sun sets on Mahler’s very own last word: a long, final fade to silence. There’s only really one way to preface that, and although Haydn’s ‘Lamentatione’ Symphony contains both tempests and tranquillity, every note brims over with irrepressible life.