Mahler Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand"

Mahler Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand." Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela, augmented by multiple student choruses (Chorus Masters Lourdes Sánchez and Manuel López Gomez). Soloists are Manuela Uhl (soprano), Julianna Di Giacomo (soprano), Anna Larsson (contralto), Charlette Hellekant (mezzo-soprano), Burkhard Fritz (tenor), Brian Mulligan (baritone), and Alexander Vinogradov (bass). Directed for TV by Michael Beyer; produced by Bernhard Fleischer and Chris Ayzoukian. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

There were a lot of performers in this massive effort. With all the student choirs and orchestras available in Venezuela, they may have had 1,000 musicians there for this performance. You'll probably find the YouTube clip here pretty impressive, or, in the alternative, insane:

On February 18, 2012, something extraordinary happened - Los Angeles Philharmonic Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil, the Símon Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and over 1000 other musicians took the stage at the Teresa Carreño Theater in Caracas, Venezuela for a performance of Mahler 8, the Symphony of a Thousand.

Buy on Amazon

What's New

Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.