Gustav Mahler - Symphony No.9 in D-major - IV, Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend

The Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1908 and 1909, and was the last symphony that he completed. The symphony is in four movements: 1. Andante comodo (D major); 2. Im Tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers. Etwas täppisch und sehr derb (C major); 3. Rondo-Burleske: Allegro assai. Sehr trotzig (A minor); 4. Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend (D-flat major). Although the symphony has the traditional number of movements, it is unusual in that the first and last are slow rather than fast. As is often the case with Mahler, one of the middle movements is a ländler. The first movement embraces a loose sonata form; the work opens with a hesitant, syncopated motif which is to return at the height of the movement’s development as a sudden intrusion of “death in the midst of life“, announced by trombones and marked within the score “with the greatest force“. The second movement is a dance, a Ländler, but it has becomes