CONCERT PROGRAMME
G.Mahler. Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major ("Symphony of a Thousand")
The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, under the leadership of its Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius, invites you to an event of national significance – the opening of the newly reconstructed LSSO Concert Hall (the former Vilnius Congress Hall), the only one in Lithuania specially adapted for symphonic music, and complying with the highest international standards. Maestro Rinkevičius has chosen one of the most magnificent works in the classical symphonic repertoire for the first concert at the new hall – the Eighth Symphony by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), also known as the "Symphony of a Thousand" because of the massive number of performers.
The symphony was composed in the summer of 1906, during Mahler's stay in southern Austria at his lakeside villa. From the very beginning, the composer was convinced of the work's significance, and, rejecting the pessimism that pervaded much of his work, Mahler composed his Eighth Symphony as a monument to the eternal and immortal human soul. Originally intended to be a classical four-movement symphony, the composer later retained two movements: the first movement is based on the ninth-century Latin Christian hymn to the holy spirit “Veni, creator spiritus”, while the second is based on the text of the final scene of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's “Faust”. Both parts are united by the common idea that salvation is possible through infinite love.
In his memoirs, Mahler wrote that from the first day of his arrival at the summer residence he was possessed by the creative spirit and completely immersed himself in the work that would later become his Eighth Symphony. By chance, when he heard the hymn to the Holy Spirit, the composer had a vision of the work: "Suddenly I saw the whole work before my eyes. All I had to do was to write it down as if it were dictated." Mahler began to write intuitively, without waiting for the text of the anthem to arrive from Vienna. When the text finally arrived, it was absolutely right for the music.
Mahler had no doubts about the symphony's significance, stating that all the other symphonies he wrote had been a mere prelude to this one. He called the Eighth Symphony the greatest thing he had ever achieved – his gift to humanity. "Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and echo. It is no longer the voices of men, it is the planets and suns revolving around us", – Mahler wrote.