ReadMusic in Motion: WASO on Tour
—21 Jan, 2026
The Curse of the Ninth: How Mahler Tried to Cheat Death
—16 Sep, 2026
There’s a strange superstition lurking behind some of classical music’s greatest symphonies. Beethoven wrote nine. Schubert wrote nine. Dvořák wrote nine.
And then there was Gustav Mahler.
By the time Mahler reached the end of his life, the idea of the “Curse of the Ninth” had become a curious musical superstition. Composers who reached their Ninth Symphony seemed to have an uncanny habit of not making it any further… Mahler, who was famously preoccupied with mortality, knew the history well, and was determined not to let it happen to him.
By the time Mahler began thinking about his next major orchestral work, he had already completed eight symphonies. Rather than tempt fate, he wrote Das Lied von der Erde (a work for voices and orchestra) and deliberately avoided calling it a symphony.
But then came Symphony No.9.
Mahler had endured a period of enormous personal upheaval. In 1907, his daughter Maria died, his career in Vienna came to an end, and he was diagnosed with a serious heart condition. Yet, it was during these final years that he produced some of his most extraordinary music.
Written in 1909, Mahler’s Ninth would become his final completed symphony. He finished the draft orchestral score in September that year, but he would never conduct it, hear it performed, or know how audiences would respond.
Mahler died in May 1911, aged just 50.
His Ninth Symphony is unlike anything that came before it. Premiered in June 1912 – with Mahler’s close friend and former assistant Bruno Walter conducting – it opens almost hesitant, fragmented and delicate. From there, Mahler takes us through four movements of grotesque humour, wild dances, enormous orchestral climaxes, and passages of extraordinary tenderness.
And then, the ending. Rather than finishing with a triumphant flourish, Mahler lets the music slowly disappear. The orchestra grows quieter and quieter until the final sounds seem to dissolve into silence.
It is often described as a farewell to life, to the world, perhaps even to music itself. There is no definitive explanation of what Mahler intended. Instead, the symphony leaves us wondering: Is this music about death, or is it about learning how to let go?
Perhaps that uncertainty is part of its power.
So, was there really a curse?
Probably not.
But there is an undeniable fascination in the fact that Mahler knew the story and tried to sidestep it. Maybe he knew exactly what he was writing when he finally numbered it as “Symphony No.9”.
Mahler did begin work on a Symphony No.10 after completing the Ninth. He died before he could finish it, leaving only the first movement fully orchestrated. Whether that was a coincidence, cruel fate, or simply the tragic reality of a composer who died too young, we’ll never really know.
Mahler 9
Friday 9 & Saturday 10 October, 7.30pm
Winthrop Hall, UWA
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