A film about Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, his last completed symphony. It features Riccardo Chailly rehearsing the Concertgebouw. Sometimes there’s shown the orchestra playing or, more often, Chailly conducting and commenting to the players, and sometimes with voice-over while the music continues underneath. There are commentaries concerning all four movements from Henry-Louis de la Grange, Mahler’s definitive biographer, a man who probably knows more about the composer than anyone, and from Chailly. There are snippets from other works, including a large part of a performance, unusually with a baritone (Thomas Hampson), of the ‘Abschied’ from ‘Das Lied von der Erde.’ Fully ten minutes of the fourth movement is played without interruption (in a dress rehearsal with audience). There is a reference after that to the impending departure of Chailly from the musical directorship of the orchestra after sixteen years; the film was made in 2004 and he has since been succeeded by Mariss Jansons.

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