Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Mahler Symphony #8 ( Symphony of A Thousand ) Finale with Rattle

In honoring the 100 birthday of the Republic of China, and the 100 anniversary of the death of Gustavo Mahler, NSO gave a grand performance of the Symphony #8 in Taipei on 10/9/2011.

The work was composed in a single inspired burst, at Maiernigg in southern Austria in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the symphony was a critical and popular success when he conducted its first performance in Munich on 12 September 1910.

The structure of the work is unconventional; instead of the normal framework of several movements, the piece is in two parts. Part I is based on the Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus  ("Come, Creator Spirit"), and Part II is a setting of the words from the closing scene of Goethe's Faust.The two parts are unified by a common idea, that of redemption through the power of love, a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.

Mahler had been convinced from the start of the work's significance; in renouncing the pessimism that had marked much of his music, he offered the Eighth as an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit.
From Wiki~~

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