Alma Mahler, remembering the night of May 18, 1911:
Mahler lay with dazed eyes; one finger was conducting on the quilt. There was a smile on his lips and twice he said “Mozart!” His eyes were very big.
The death agony began. I was sent into the next room. The death rattle lasted several hours. The ghastly sound ceased suddenly at midnight of the 18th of May during a tremendous thunderstorm. With that last, last breath his beloved and beautiful soul had fled, and the silence was more deathly than all else. As long as he breathed he was there still. But now all was over.
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 9, Mov IV, Lucerne Festival Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado
We always wish Lenny was still here, but we miss him even more today, and wish he could come back somehow, just for one night, to give us the greatest Mahler concert ever heard, in remembrance of this day. But the next best thing is listening to Lenny explain, the way he only could, why Mahler affects us so deeply and why today is such a unique day: