Gustav Mahler. Symphony No 8
for eight soloists, three choruses and full symphony orchestra
Soloists:
Viktoria Yastrebova,
Anastasia Kalagina, Lyudmila Dudinova (soprano);
Zlata Bulycheva,
Nadezhda Serdyuk (mezzo-soprano);
Sergei Semishkur (tenor);
Vladislav Sulimsky (baritone);
Vadim Kravets (bass)
Chorus and Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre
Principal Chorus Master: Andrei Petrenko
Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is often compared and placed alongside Beethoven’s Ninth and its culminating Ode to Joy. The composer believed that the Eighth Symphony would become a lofty ode to mankind, his creative spirit, an ode to beauty and to Goethe’s “eternal femininity”. It was also conceived by Mahler as a “symphony of symphonies”, a crowning symphonic epic which the composer had created over two decades. In other words, the Eighth Symphony was allotted the role of the finale of the super-series of all of Mahler’s symphonies. Iosif Raiskin |