Mahler - Symphony No. 8

Mahler's Symphony No. 8 - 'Symphonie der Tausend'
Mahler wrote to his friend Willem Mengelberg that his Eighth Symphony was his greatest work ever. 'All others anticipated this.' Moreover, he experienced it as if the piece of music had been dictated to him in a vision. In two monumental movements, Mahler said he sings of the entire universe. 'There are no longer human voices. They are planets and suns, revolving in their orbits.' Practically speaking, it is also a rather voluminous work. Mahler often needed very many performers, and in this Mahler's "symphony of a thousand," there are close to four hundred. Or more: in 1912 Mengelberg conducted a version with two thousand musicians and singers.