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In this great work, Gustav Mahler experimented with the four-movement symphonic form, producing a masterpiece of musical innovation, satiric writing, and poetic drama expressed in purely instrumental terms. Alban Berg referred to the first movement of the Ninth Symphony as "the most glorious [Mahler] ever wrote," and further observed, "the whole movement is based on a premonition of death which constantly recurs … that is why the tenderest passages are followed by tremendous climaxes like new eruptions of a volcano.