Sunday Feature: Beautiful Death

Stephen Johnson connects Mahler's beliefs about death to Viennese funeral customs and particularly the idea of 'beautiful death', which was pervasive in Vienna. With Professor Julian Johnson talking about Mahler's fear of death and the many guises in which death appears in his music, as well as contributions from Dr Wittigo Keller, an expert on Viennese funerals, and Dr Isabella Ackerl, the author of a book on Vienna and the idea of beautiful death. Plus Dr Eduard Winter from the Narrenturm, renowned singer of Wienerlied Agnes Palmisano discussing the influence these songs may have had on Mahler's death music and Freudian psychoanalyst Dr Jeanne Wolff Bernstein on what Freud may have meant in his theory of the death instinct. Music includes Mahler's unfinished Tenth Symphony, clips from the Funeral March of his Fifth Symphony, his Fourth and Ninth Symphonies, Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde