MAHLER Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand”

The nickname “Symphony of a Thousand” scarcely does justice to Mahler’s epic work — one of the greatest in the concert repertoire. Its immense scope makes performances rare and, therefore, are to be treasured. Part One of Mahler’s mystical work begins with a powerful unleashing of sound that sets the hymn, “Come, Creative Spirit,” a text that also foreshadows the message of Part Two of the Symphony. The expansive second half transports us to the final scene of Goethe’s dramatic poem Faust, the title character who had bargained away his soul to the devil and thus to eternal damnation. But the beatific voices of a “chorus mysticus,” underscored by thunderous timpani rolls, reach into the stratosphere and promise that Faust’s soul — borne higher and ever higher to heaven through the intercession of hosts of penitent women and holy men and ultimately angels, will be redeemed through “the eternally feminine” — the power of love.