Pablo González conducts Mahler: Symphony of a Thousand

Premiered in Munich on September 12th 1910, the Symphony No. 8 in E-flat Major, "of a Thousand" is a monumental work written by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler. The nickname "of a Thousand" is hyperbolic. Yet, the number of musicians necessary to the performance of this symphony is indeed impressive: eight soloists, no less than three choirs (one of children, two of adults), a symphonic orchestra made up of, among others, twenty-four brass instruments (seven of them being in the room), several percussions, a piano, an organ, a harmonium...

Such a huge size is exceptional, even though it lies within the historical evolution of orchestral practices throughout the 19th century. Beethoven pathed the way to the use of a choir within a symphonic work with the "Ode to Joy" in 1824. Mahler himself experimented this formation with his Second and Third Symphonies. Yet, the dimensions reached here are unequaled, and such an overgrowth compels the composer to structure his work according to a nonstandard architecture.

Divided into two parts, the Symphony of a Thousand is based upon two litterary works. The first is the "Veni, Creator Spiritus," a 9th-century Latin anthem; the second is an excerpt of the closing passages from Goethe's dramatic poem Faust. Through these two texts, the sacred and the profane encounter. The key to understand such a juxtaposition is the theme of those two literary works. Both of them express a single idea, that of redemption through the power of love.

The Symphony of a Thousand, a work filled with a post-Romantic ethos, is here performed by the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, under the baton of Pablo González. Numerous choirs gathered for the occasion, an orchestra of students from the conservatory (the Orquestra Simfònica de l'Esmuc) and high-flying soloists, including Claudia Barainsky and Nadine Weissmann, join forces with the OBC's music director to perform Mahler's Symphony No. 8.

Credits.

Picture: © D. Vass