From the moment of his appointment as Music Director, Kazushi Ono dreamed of building “cathedrals of sound” with the musicians of Brussels Philharmonic. And build he did: Mahler, Strauss, Scriabin — the great symphonic architects all passed through. This season, he places the blueprint of the ultimate sound cathedral on the music stands: Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.

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“O youth! Vanished! O love! Blown away!” Mahler wrote in the manuscript of his Ninth and final symphony, composed during what would prove to be the darkest period of his life. His beloved daughter had died, his marriage to Alma was faltering, and he himself had been diagnosed with heart disease.

In the monumental slow movements that both open and close the work, he transforms these personal tragedies into a profoundly wistful farewell to the beauty of life. Yet make no mistake: the symphony is equally a celebration of that life — of his love for nature, of renewed strength. In the shadow of death, Mahler created the ultimate hymn to life.