Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" Los Angeles Philharmonic & Gustavo Dudamel

• Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911): Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1:
• 1 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1: Veni, creator spiritus 01:21
• 2 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1: Imple superna gratia 04:14
• 3 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1: Infirma nostri corporis 01:41
• 4 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1: Tempo I. Allegro, etwas hastig 01:24
• 5 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1: Infirma nostri corporis virtute firmans perpeti 02:29
• 6 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1: Accende lumen sensibus 05:18
• 7 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1: Qui Paraclitus diceris 04:13
• 8 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 1: Gloria sit Patri Domino 01:49
• Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2:
• 9 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Poco adagio 05:42
• 10 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Più mosso. Allegro moderato 03:22
• 11 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Waldung, sie schwankt heran 04:23
• 12 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Ewiger Wonnebrand 01:40
• 13 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Wie Felsenabgrund mir zu Füßen 03:59
• 14 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Gerettet ist das edle Glied 01:02
• 15 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Jene Rosen, aus den Händen 02:02
• 16 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Uns bleibt ein Erdenrest 01:41
• 17 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Ich spür' soeben 00:33
• 18 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Hier ist die Aussicht frei - Freudig empfangen wir 00:37
• 19 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Höchste Herrscherin der Welt 02:15
• 20 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Jungfrau, rein im schönsten Sinne 01:29
• 21 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Äußerst langsam. Adagissimo 01:32
• 22 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Dir, der Unberührbaren - Du schwebst zu Höhen 02:03
• 23 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Bei der Liebe, die den Füßen 00:56
• 24 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Bei dem Bronn, zu dem schon weiland 01:24
• 25 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Bei dem hochgeweihten Orte 01:02
• 26 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Die du großen Sünderinnen 01:37
• 27 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Neige, neige, du Ohnegleiche 00:40
• 28 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Er überwächst uns schon 01:15
• 29 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Vom edlen Geisterchor umgeben 02:03
• 30 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Komm! hebe dich zu höhern Sphären 01:09
• 31 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Blicket auf zum Retterblick 05:29
• 32 Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand" / Pt. 2: Alles Vergängliche 05:08
• Total Runtime 01:15:32

Info for Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand"

Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s revelatory interpretation of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall (30/31 May & 2 June 2019) will be released in June 2021. Their new album documents a landmark performance that brought the LA Philharmonic’s centennial season to a triumphant conclusion in 2019. Mahler’s extraordinary ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ spans a universe of emotions, channeled through everything from passages of intimate reflection to overwhelming outbursts of choral and orchestral sound.

Following Apple Music’s announcement regarding introducing Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos, listeners will be able to enjoy Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new album Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 8, and their entire Deutsche Grammophon catalogue, via this revolutionary form of audio experience. Their recordings include the Grammy-winning albums of 2020 and 2021 Andrew Norman: Sustain and Charles Ives – Complete Symphonies, landmark releases of the past decade such as Celebrating John Williams, Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Debussy’s La Mer, major symphonic pieces by Bartók, Berlioz and Brahms, and seminal works by John Adams.

“Share with me this monumental live performance”

“There are no words to describe the immersive, overpowering experience of being a conductor leading a performance of Mahler’s towering ‘Symphony of a Thousand’,” noted Gustavo Dudamel. “But now, technology is advancing to bring that experience closer to our ears, our minds, and our souls. Share with me this monumental live performance with my beloved Los Angeles Philharmonic, remastered in Dolby Atmos audio technology for the first time on Apple Music alongside my collection of Deutsche Grammophon recordings with the LA Phil, in rich, remarkable 3D sound.”

“A once-in-a-lifetime experience”

Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Mahler Project, that presented the composer’s nine symphonies within a month in 2012, attracted global attention and rave reviews and they have since programmed Mahler’s music at home and on tour. Their captivating performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in May 2019 was described by Stage and Cinema as “a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Although known since the time of its first performance in 1910 as the ‘Symphony of a Thousand,’ because of the great number of performers required, Gustavo Dudamel’s vision of the work was realised by a total of 346 performers. The Los Angeles Philharmonic was joined by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Chorale, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, National Children’s Chorus and soloists Tamara Wilson, Leah Crocetto, Erin Morley, Mihoko Fujimura, Tamara Mumford, Simon O’Neill, Ryan McKinny and Morris Robinson.

Mahler challenged symphonic convention in this work, symbolizing the power of divine creation and mankind’s redemption through love, by writing parts for eight solo singers, two monumental mixed adult choruses and children’s choir, and dividing the piece into two movements. He based the first movement on the ninth-century Latin hymn Veni Creator Spiritus, and set words from the closing scene of Goethe’s verse tragedy Faust as an extended second part.

The symphony entered Mahler’s mind almost fully formed during the summer of 1906. “I saw the whole piece immediately before my eyes,” he told his biographer, “and only needed to write it down, as though it were being dictated to me.” Mahler said the finished score was, “something in comparison with which all the rest of my works are no more than introductions”.

In 1906, while attending the Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Mahler ran into the music historian Richard Specht. At the time Mahler was preoccupied with the composition of his Eighth Symphony, and he spoke at length about it to Specht. Several years after Mahler’s death Specht published an account of Mahler's comments about the Symphony:

“Think, in the last three weeks I have completed the sketches of an entirely new symphony, something in comparison with which all the rest of my works are no more than introductions. I have never written anything like it; it is something quite different in both content and style from all my other works, and certainly the biggest thing that I have ever done. Nor do I think that I have ever worked under such a feeling of compulsion; it was like a lightning vision – I saw the whole piece immediately before my eyes and only needed to write it down, as though it were being dictated to me. This Eighth Symphony is remarkable for the fact that it unites two poems in two different languages, the first being a Latin hymn and the second nothing less than the final scene of the second part of Faust. Does that astonish you? I have for years longed to set this scene with the anchorites and the final scene with the Mater gloriosa, and to set it quite differently from other composers who have made it saccharine and feeble; but then [I] gave up the idea. Lately, however, an old book fell into my hands and I chanced on the hymn “Veni creator spiritus” – and at a single stroke I saw the whole thing – not only the opening theme, but the whole first movement, and as an answer to it I could imagine nothing more beautiful than Goethe’s text in the scene with the anchorites! Formally, too, it is something quite novel – can you imagine a symphony that is, from beginning to end, sung? Hitherto I have always used words and voices simply in an explanatory way, as a short cut to creating a certain atmosphere and to express something which, purely symphonically, could only be expressed at great length, with the terseness and precision only possible by using words. Here, on the other hand, voices are also used as instruments: the first movement is strictly symphonic in form but all of it is sung. Strange, in fact, that this has never occurred to any other composer – it really is Columbus’ egg, a ‘pure’ symphony in which the most beautiful instrument in the world is given its true place – and not simply as one sonority among others, for in my symphony the human voice is after all the bearer of the whole poetic idea.”

Those familiar with Mahler’s personality know that he habitually made such excitable and passionate remarks about his music, particularly when he was in the middle of composing it. But in the case of the Eighth Symphony, Mahler’s assessment was – and remains – accurate. In its highly unorthodox juxtaposition of texts and astoundingly large performing resources, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 stands incontestably as the grandest and most peculiar work he ever wrote. ...

Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

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