Overview

At 97, San Francisco Symphony Conductor Laureate Herbert Blomstedt maintains a rigorous concert schedule that belies his age. He conducts Mahler’s massive Ninth Symphony, a 90-minute marathon of emotional catharsis and technical derring-do. It was the last symphony that Mahler completed, and death was on his mind. At its core, and in spite of its tragic touches, the Ninth Symphony offers solace, the salvation of sunshine, a passing cloud, a child’s laughter.