Mäkelä leads Mahler’s Symphony No. 8
Concertgebouw Orchestra, choirs and soloists perform Mahler’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand’
‘These are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.’
Concert programme
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Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 8
Performers
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Klaus Mäkelä
conductor, artistic partner
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Hailey Clark
soprano
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Golda Schulz
soprano
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Miriam Kutrowatz
soprano
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Jennifer Johnston
alto
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Okka von der Damerau
alto
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Giorgio Berrugi
baritone
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Michael Nagy
baritone
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Tareq Nazmi
bass
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Netherlands Radio Choir
choir
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Laurens Symfonisch
choir
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Choeur de l'Orchestre de Paris
choir
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Netherlands National Children's Choir
choir
About this concert
When Gustav Mahler came to Amsterdam to conduct the Dutch premiere of his First Symphony in 1903, a close collaboration started – so began the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s much-vaunted Mahler tradition. Klaus Mäkelä steps into that tradition with respect and self-confidence. He previously gave stunning interpretations of the Sixth and the Third; at the Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival he conducts the First and the monumental Eighth Symphony.
Mahler wrote to his friend Willem Mengelberg, then chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, that his Eighth Symphony was his greatest work ever: ‘All the others have led up to this one.’ Mahler composed the music as if it had been dictated to him in a vision. Indeed, he claimed have written an ode to the entire universe in two monumental movements. ‘These are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving,’ he said. From a practical perspective, too, it is a large-scale work. Mahler often called for a very large number of performers, and the Eighth, his ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ is scored for nearly 400 or more: in 1912, Mengelberg conducted a version featuring 2,000 musicians and singers.
Dates and tickets
About this concert
When Gustav Mahler came to Amsterdam to conduct the Dutch premiere of his First Symphony in 1903, a close collaboration started – so began the Concertgebouw Orchestra’s much-vaunted Mahler tradition. Klaus Mäkelä steps into that tradition with respect and self-confidence. He previously gave stunning interpretations of the Sixth and the Third; at the Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival he conducts the First and the monumental Eighth Symphony.
Mahler wrote to his friend Willem Mengelberg, then chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, that his Eighth Symphony was his greatest work ever: ‘All the others have led up to this one.’ Mahler composed the music as if it had been dictated to him in a vision. Indeed, he claimed have written an ode to the entire universe in two monumental movements. ‘These are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving,’ he said. From a practical perspective, too, it is a large-scale work. Mahler often called for a very large number of performers, and the Eighth, his ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ is scored for nearly 400 or more: in 1912, Mengelberg conducted a version featuring 2,000 musicians and singers.