Tony Duggan writes:

>More importantly, when he was writing the Ninth Symphony, Mahler was NOT
>"faced with his own imminent death".  He was not in that position until
>about February 1911 by which time all of his music had been composed.

What you say about Mahler's thoughts about his own death makes a great deal
of sense to me.  Moreover, Bruno Walter always felt the same way about it,
and few were closer to Mahler than he was.

Bill S