Gustav Mahler’s orchestral and vocal oeuvre are inseparable and interdependent. Apart from his monumental symphonies, Kindertotenlieder has long been recognized as a masterpiece. Based on Friedrich Rückert’s poems (in memory of his two children who died of scarlet fever), Mahler’s cycle is also concerned about mortality, along with prevalent imagery of nature. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.6 encapsulates the composer’s genius and tragic fate. In his pursuit of beauty, Tchaikovsky unearthed the deepest sadness through well-crafted melodies and finely-etched orchestration. Both masterpieces give us food for thought on the meaning of life and how music, in the words of Leonard Bernstein, can “name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.”