Gustav Mahler ended his Ninth Symphony with a heart-rending Adagio, in whose slow concluding section (marked “Adagissimo”) the instructions morendo or ersterbend (both meaning “dying”) are repeated several times.  Ever since its posthumous premiere in 1912, the symphony has been widely viewed as a farewell to life.  What could possibly be said after such a final word?

As far as we know, Mahler did not discuss his projected Tenth Symphony with anyone.  He did not even share his thoughts with his wife Alma, and that fact itself is revealing.  The Mahlers’ marriage was in serious crisis in the summer of 1910, when Mahler found out about his wife’s affair with the architect Walter Gropius.  Some intense soul-searching ensued; Mahler even had a consultation with Sigmund Freud.  The visit led to reconciliation between husband and wife, and to a renewed commitment.  Yet Mahler–who had already been diagnosed with the serious heart condition that would soon claim his life–must still have been under the influence of that shock, for among the sketches for the Tenth Symphony, we find verbal notations such as “O God! Why hast thou forsaken me?”  “To live for you! To die for you!” and “Almschi!” (his pet name for his wife).  It seems that in his Tenth, Mahler wanted to project his personal trauma on the cosmic scale of his earlier symphonies.  It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the work raised problems of a totally unprecedented kind for Mahler.  

Add to that his superstitious belief that no composer could finish more than nine symphonies (the number that neither Beethoven, nor Bruckner or Dvořák had been able to exceed). Mahler had tried to “fool” Fate by writing Das Lied von der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”) as an unnumbered symphony between his Eighth and his Ninth.  Yet Fate could not be fooled and Mahler died before he could complete his Tenth Symphony.  He only managed to finish the gigantic first-movement Adagio.  Four more movements were left in various degrees of incompletion, with enough material surviving on paper to make a performing version a realistic goal.  In fact, the idea of completing the symphony was raised not long after Mahler’s death.  Yet the challenge was enormous, and it wasn’t until 1964 that British musicologist and composer Deryck Cooke accomplished the task.  Alma Mahler gave Cooke’s work the seal of approval shortly before her death.  Since then, there have been other attempts to complete Mahler’s Tenth, but so far, only Cooke’s version has managed to establish itself in the repertoire.  As far as one can see from the sketches, the ethereal ending of the last movement would have signalled some kind of “return to life” after the morendo of the Ninth.  We can interpret this as a declaration of love for Alma, and, in the words of British musicologist Michael Kennedy, “the most fervently intense ending to any Mahler symphony and a triumphant vindication of his spiritual courage.”

All this, however, remains somewhat conjectural as we will never know how Mahler would have ended the symphony.  The only movement he fully notated is the opening Adagio, which continues in the “farewell-to-life” mood of the Ninth.  It is based on two principal themes:  the first is the unaccompanied viola melody in Andante tempo with which the movement begins, hovering mysteriously between tonalities without quite settling on any particular key.  This is followed by the real Adagio, whose warm violin melody begins in a clearly defined F-sharp major, though it soon branches out in distant chromatic modulations.  The emotional power of this melody, which projects deep sadness, is enhanced by many wide leaps of an octave and more.  

Both themes are subsequently developed in alternation and in conjunction.  Although the tempo remains slow throughout, the music brightens up somewhat in the course of the development, especially in the passages where the texture is enlivened by woodwind trills and string pizzicatos (plucked notes).  The two themes eventually return in their original forms, bringing back the tragic mood of the beginning.  An unexpected tutti attack leads to the movement’s climax, a horrifyingly dissonant nine-note chord that speaks of almost unbearable pain.  In the ensuing coda, the themes gradually disintegrate into isolated fragments, as the first violins climb to their highest register at the end of the fingerboard.