Mahler: Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand"

Richard Stilwell (Performer), Gustav Mahler (Composer), Michael Gielen (Conductor), Ernst Wurdinger (Performer), Faye Robinson (Performer), Hildegard Heichele (Performer), Margaret Marshall (Performer), Mallory Walker (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Richard Stilwell, Ernst Wurdinger, Faye Robinson, Hildegard Heichele, Margaret Marshall, et al.
• Conductor: Michael Gielen
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (November 17, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000027YD
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #479,653 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Elevated to higher spheres, July 24, 2011

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Mr John Haueisen (WORTHINGTON, OHIO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand" (Audio CD)

Life is so unfair! Eight months after the premiere (in Munich) of his huge success, Symphony Eight, Gustav Mahler was dead. His happiness at finally receiving the audience approval he had so long been denied, was so short-lived.

Mahler considered his Eighth, the"greatest thing he had done so far."

Novelist Thomas Mann, who was in the Munich audience at the premiere in September, 1910, immediately proclaimed Mahler as the man who embodied the most sacred artistic will of the age.

This performance, in August, 1981, opened Frankfurt's newly-restored Alte Oper. Those familiar with Mahler's Eighth know of its frequent cognomen, "The Symphony of a Thousand." Truly, not only for the huge orchestra, EIGHT soloists!, choirs and an organ, it is a huge work. Even Mahler admitted that in it he heard no longer human voices, but the dancing of planets and suns--the music of the spheres.

If you are not familiar with Symphony 8, it consists of two parts:

Part One: an invocation, in Latin, asking the Creator Spirit to bless us all with understanding of life.

Part Two: The Final Scene of Goethe's Faust. It is one giant celebration of redemption and salvation for humanity. If this sounds like a lot to put in one musical work--well, this is Mahler--he can do it.

Conductor Michael Gielen takes M8 at tempi far more brisk than most recordings; this one clocking in at a total time of only 72'10. It fits on a single disc!

Soloists and choirs do a very good job--not quite outstanding--but with very little room for complaints. Special accolades go to Hildegard Heichele who shines as Soprano 3 una poenitentium (Gretchen). See if you can keep your heart from skipping as she sings "Er kommt zurück!"

I'm thankful that Michael Gielen really let the harps shine through, right after the tenor's aria, "Junfrau, rein im höchsten Sinne"--always a moving experience. Soprano Margaret Marshall amplifies the magic effect as Mater Gloriosa sings, "Come--raise yourself to higher spheres!"

Mahler called this symphony "a dispenser of joy." I think I can very safely predict that this performance will leave you feeling elevated, "to higher spheres."

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A gala occasion unveiling of Mahler's Symphony of the Thousand, February 11, 2010

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Larry VanDeSande - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand" (Audio CD)

Michael Gielen, who owns a reputation in 20th century music and Mahler, has recorded the Mahler Symphony 8 a couple times. This, from 1981, was the first one. A latter entry on Hannsler Classics Symphony 8 / Jacob's Ladder runs to two disks and includes a significant add-on, something rare for recordings of Mahler's "Symphony of the Thousand."

Gielen's Mahler is usually characterized as analytical, sometimes intense, and having paid strict adherence to the written score. All those attributes are apparent in this recording, taped in a one-off performance in Frankfurt when they reopened the Old Opera in August 1981.

This recording has generally gotten good press in the years it's been available, with some reservation for the pushed solos and the overall rapid pace of the music. Classical Web Mahler specialist Tony Duggan singled it out in his Mahler overview as a preferred version for people on a budget. Considering it's a concert performance on one disk (TT: 72:10), it qualifies as a bargain best buy even when compared to the more famous single disk performance from Georg Solti Mahler: Symphony No. 8.

Duggan called this a "head over heart" performance; I'm not sure I share that opinion. Gielen and forces, while pumped for the opening night of the opera, did not attempt much that could be called visionary, loving or spiritual in the first half. This is straightforward, fast, maybe even impatient. The second half is more philosophically in keeping with Goethe's text from Faust and has many lovely moments, especially in the closing pages.

The singing has been criticized here and elsewhere, but I'd temper that with the reality of having performed in front of audiences. Try singing for 70 minutes on a festive occasion in front of an audience and staying in tune with a conductor that pushes the envelope the way Gielen does and you may have a different opinion about this disk. Unlike studio jobs, there were no second tries or sectionals to re-record everyone's flubs, off-key moments, or when someone ran out of gas or air.

On the whole, this recording works for me. I haven't been a great fan of the music. I have tried a number of times to find in this what others have. While I can accept the somewhat similarly-modeled Mahler Symphony 3 as two orchestral sections surrounding a mini-oratorio about heaven, the attempt at near religious profundity in the Symphony 8 hasn't worked for me.

This recording is much better than others I've heard including those directed by Solti Mahler: Symphony No. 8, Rattle Mahler - Symphony No. 8 / City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Rattle and Tilson Thomas's new super audio version Mahler: Symphony # 8 which is beautifully sung but spends too much time in the same place for me. My favorite version is Neumann's with the Czech Philharmonic, available in an expensive out of print version Symphony 3 in D, his integral set of all the Mahler symphonies Symphonies Nos 1-9, or perhaps in Japan where some of his Mahler symphonies are available in super audio format.

I'd recommend this disk to others that, like me, have had a difficult time coming to grips with this lengthy, often pretentious and bombastic music. If you love the Mahler Symphony 8 and think it is a metaphor for spiritual engagement, this recording may not be for you. If you're somewhere between those poles, you can buy this for less than $5 and the sound is great as long as you make mental notes that this is a one-off concert performance and the singers weren't always standing next to the microphones. There is audience applause at the end. too.

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece for peanuts..., November 27, 2003

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Bob (Mobile, Alabama United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand" (Audio CD)

If you haven't heard Mahler's Eighth, you have no excuse for passing this one up at this price. The orchestra and choir play well, but many of the vocal soloists are weak. Also, the conducting is a bit hurried at times for my taste.

If you really like Mahler's Eighth, I'd recommend that you go with the performances conducted by Sinopoli or Chailly. They both had better casts and better recording technologies at their disposal.