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