NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Semyon Bychkov
Mahler: Symphony of a Thousand
Massive sound
Any talk about Gustav Mahler’s monumental vocal symphony No. 8 features one superlative after another: the commonly used nickname »Symphony of a Thousand« – not of the composer’s invention, incidentally – already points the way. Mahler himself called his biggest-scale work »the greatest thing I have ever written«, and he certainly wasn’t just referring to the huge body of some 500 participants, which includes several choirs, a huge orchestra and eight soloists. First and foremost, the composer was aiming at a tremendously high intellectual and religious level with this symphony. He chose to set two weighty texts to music: the holiest piece in all German national literature, the closing scene from Goethe’s »Faust« Part II, and the venerable Whitsun hymn »Veni, creator spiritus«.
The premiere on 12 September 1910 was an overwhelming success. The writer Thomas Mann was deeply impressed, and sent the composer a letter expressing his gratitude for »embodying, as I see it, the most earnest and sacred artistic will of our time«.
To this day, performances of Mahler’s Eighth come close to a spectacle – after all, it’s not every day that you can hear top ensembles like the Prague Philharmonic Choir, the Berlin Radio Choir, the NDR Vokalensemble, the Hanover Boys’ Choir and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra all at once, with a top-class octet of soloists added for good measure! And they don’t all fit on to the stage everywhere… But this is not a problem at the Elbphilharmonie, where star conductor Semyon Bychkov, after his acclaimed readings of the Third Symphony with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, now continues his Mahler series with the greatest work in the Classical-Romantic repertoire.
Performers
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester
NDR Vokalensemble
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Prager Philharmonischer Chor
Knabenchor Hannover
Carolyn Sampson soprano
Camilla Tilling soprano
Miriam Kutrowatz soprano
Stefanie Irányi mezzo-soprano
Jennifer Johnston mezzo-soprano
Andreas Schager tenor
Adam Plachetka bass
Nathan Berg bass
choir rehearsal Lukáš Vasilek
conductor Semyon Bychkov
Programme
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 8 for three soprano solos, two alto solos, tenor solo, baritone solo, bass solo, children’s chorus, two mixed choruses and large orchestra
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