Synopsis

Tonight concludes the 91st season of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts with a single, monumental work: Mahler’s song-cycle, *Das Lied von der Erde*. This setting of a collection of passionate, delicate, and stoic Chinese poems was composed in the final years of Mahler’s life. Initially envisioned as his Ninth Symphony, he superstitiously abandoned that title, mindful of the many composers whose ninth symphonies had proven to be their final works, and aware of his own failing heart. Tonight’s