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Recordings

Mahler: Symphony No. 8

Released on June 7, 2021

Gustav Mahler’s mighty Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major spans a universe of emotions, channeled through everything from passages of intimate reflection to overwhelming outbursts of choral and orchestral sound. Recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the revelatory interpretation from Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, massed choirs and an ace team of solo voices documents a landmark performance that brought the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s centennial season to a triumphant conclusion in 2019. These performances were made possible by generous support from the Lloyd E. Rigler – Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel said, “Mahler’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand’ has never felt more relevant than at this moment. When every headline seems to be about violence and division, this towering work takes a massive assembled musical force, and brings it together in an ecstatic, rapturous statement of joyful redemption.”

Listen to Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 8:

Apple Music | Amazon Music | Spotify | Idagio | Tidal | YouTube Music | Pandora | Deezer | Qobuz

Portrait of Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 8 Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor with curly hair, promotional poster text above.

The LA Phil’s brilliance here was in [the] detailing. Dudamel has gone beyond mere beauty in his quest for Mahlerian meaning. But he has no qualms with robustness, and the combined choruses were capable of both grandeur and drama at the same time.

— Los Angeles Times

The outstanding playing of the orchestra supported the entire enterprise and supplied a diverse palette for Dudamel to use to great effect.

— ConcertoNet.com

… this once-in-a-lifetime experience had the audience rightfully enthralled.

— StageandCinema.com

Gustavo Dudamel’s new recording of this monumental work (available through Apple Music in their new immersive Spatial Audio format, with support for Dolby Atmos®) builds on foundations set early during his tenure as Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The LA Phil’s Mahler Project, a near-superhuman undertaking that presented the composer’s nine symphonies within a month in 2012, attracted global attention and rave reviews. The LA Phil has since programmed Mahler’s music at home and on tour, deepening their sense of its meaning and preparing the way for their captivating May 2019 performance of Symphony No. 8, hailed by StageandCinema.com as “a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” 

Although known since the time of its initial 1910 performance as the “Symphony of a Thousand,” Dudamel’s vision of the work was richly served 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.

Maestro Dudamel, reported the Los Angeles Times, “had the orchestra, chorus and soloists sculpt phrases as though they were questions needing deep investigation. One idea followed the next as in an inexorable argument that, when it reached the end of the movement, was not just physically thrilling but like discovering the inevitable and the ineffable.” Other critics were moved by the interpretation’s “thrills and chills” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and by the “exuberant, joyous and playful” conductor’s “complete control” of his forces (ConcertoNet.com). 

Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Symphony No. 8 received two nominations for the 2022 GRAMMY® Awards – Best Choral Performance (winner) and Best Engineered Album, Classical. The GRAMMY®, which celebrates both artistic and technical achievement, is the recording industry’s most prestigious award.

Written by near-contemporaries, the scores of Igor Stravinsky and Heitor Villa-Lobos offer two distinct visions of musical enchantment; one glows with orchestral brilliance and mythic spectacle while the other roots itself in the living world, drawing from the sounds and folklore of the forest. More than a century later, both works continue to reveal new truths about transformation, nature, and the unseen forces that shape human storytelling.

Track Listing

Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat Major "Symphony of a Thousand"

Part 1

  1. Veni, creator spiritus
  2. Imple superna gratia
  3. Infirma nostri corporis
  4. Tempo I. Allegro, etwas hastig
  5. Infirma nostri corporis virtute firmans perpeti
  6. Accende lumen sensibus
  7. Qui Paraclitus diceris
  8. Gloria sit Patri Domino

Part 2

  1. Poco adagio
  2. Più mosso. Allegro moderato
  3. Waldung, sie schwankt heran
  4. Ewiger Wonnebrand
  5. Wie Felsenabgrund mir zu Füßen
  6. Gerettet ist das edle Glied
  7. Jene Rosen, aus den Händen
  8. Uns bleibt ein Erdenrest
  9. Ich spür' soeben
  10. Hier ist die Aussicht frei - Freudig empfangen wir
  11. Höchste Herrscherin der Welt
  12. Jungfrau, rein im schönsten Sinne
  13. Äußerst langsam. Adagissimo
  14. Dir, der Unberührbaren - Du schwebst zu Höhen
  15. Bei der Liebe, die den Füßen
  16. Bei dem Bronn, zu dem schon weiland
  17. Bei dem hochgeweihten Orte
  18. Die du großen Sünderinnen
  19. Neige, neige, du Ohnegleiche
  20. Er überwächst uns schon
  21. Vom edlen Geisterchor umgeben
  22. Komm! hebe dich zu höhern Sphären
  23. Blicket auf zum Retterblick
  24. Alles Vergängliche

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