Main Hall
Programme
Mahler - Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major 'Symphonie der Tausend'
This concert has no intermission
Musicians
Concertgebouw Orchestra
National Radio Choir
Laurens Symfonisch
Le Chœur de l'Orchestre de Paris
National Children's Choir
Conductor: Klaus Mäkelä
Soprano: Golda Schultz
Soprano: Miriam Kutrowatz
Alto: Jennifer Johnston
Alto: Okka von der Damerau
Tenor: Giorgio Berrugi
Baritone: Michael Nagy
Bass: Tareq Nazmi
Concertgebouw Orchestra and four choirs
Klaus Mäkelä has been artistic partner of the Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2022 and will become chief conductor in 2027. Earlier in this festival, he already conducted the First Symphony, today the Eighth. The Concertgebouw Orchestra shares the stage with no fewer than four vocal ensembles: the National Radio Choir, Laurens Symphonic, the Choeur de l'Orchestre de Paris and the National Children's Choir.
Mahler's Symphony No. 8
Mahler wrote to his friend Willem Mengelberg that his Eighth Symphony was his greatest work ever. 'All the other symphonies were anticipating this.' Moreover, he experienced it as if the piece of music was dictated to him in a vision. In two monumental movements, Mahler says he sings of the entire universe. 'There are no longer human voices sounding. They are planets and suns, revolving in their orbits.' Practically speaking, it is also a rather voluminous work. Mahler did often need very many performers, and in this Mahler's 'symphony of a thousand', there are close to four hundred. Or more: in 1912, Mengelberg conducted a version with two thousand musicians and singers.