Composer: Gustav Mahler
Performer: Carolyn Sampson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Sasha Cooke, Jess Dandy, Barry Banks, Julian Orlishausen, Christian Immler, Minnesota Chorale, National Lutheran Choir, Minnesota Boychoir, Angelica Cantanti Youth Choirs
Orchestra: Minnesota Orchestra
Conductor: Osmo Vänskä
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: BIS
Catalogue: BIS2496
Release: 2023
Size: 1.45 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Symphony No. 8 in E-Flat Major “Symphony of a Thousand”
01. Ia. Veni, Creator Spiritus
02. Ib. Imple superna gratia
03. Ic. Infirma nostri corporis
04. Id. Allegro, etwas hastig
05. Ie. Infirma nostri corporis
06. If. Accende lumen sensibus
07. Ig. Veni, Creator Spiritus – Da gaudiorum praemia
08. Ih. Gloria sit Patri Domino
09. IIa. Poco adagio
10. IIb. Più mosso
11. IIc. Waldung, sie schwankt heran
12. IId. Ewiger Wonnebrand
13. IIe. Wie Felsenabgrund mir zu Füßen
14. IIf. Gerettet ist das edle Glied – Hände verschlinget
15. IIg. Jene Rosen aus den Händen
16. IIh. Uns bleibt ein Erdenrest
17. IIi. Ich spür’ soeben – Freudig empfangen wir – Hier ist die Aussicht frei
18. IIj. Höchste Herrscherin der Welt
19. IIk. Dir, der Unberührbaren – Du schwebst zu Höhen
20. IIl. Bei der Liebe, die den Füßen – Bei dem Bronn, zu dem schon weiland – Bei dem hochgeweihten Orte
21. IIm. Neige, neige, du Ohnegleiche
22. IIn. Er überwächst uns schon – Vom edlen Geisterchor umgeben
23. IIo. Komm! Hebe dich zu höhern Sphären – Blicket auf zum Retterblick
24. IIp. Alles Vergängliche
For its final concert of the 2021–22 season and Osmo Vänskä’s last as artistic director, the Minnesota Orchestra chose to present Mahler’s mammoth Eighth Symphony, which calls for one of the largest complement of performers in the history of music, a symbol of the communitarian spirit of collective cultural, social and religious-philosophical endeavour in what has been referred to as a ‘Mass for the Masses’. Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, unlike his others, reveals no contrary despairing voice. It is instead a monumentally affirmative expression of human spiritual achievement achieved through the union of two seemingly incompatible texts: the Latin hymn Veni Creator Spiritus and the conclusion of the second part of Goethe’s Faust. Its première in Munich in September 1910 gave rise to the greatest triumph of Mahler’s career, and a rollcall of European royalty and the artistic élite attended the final public rehearsal and the performances. The Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä are here joined by Carolyn Sampson, Jacquelyn Wagner, Sasha Cooke, Jess Dandy, Barry Banks, Julian Orlishausen, Christian Immler as well as the Minnesota Chorale, the National Lutheran Choir, the Minnesota Boychoir and the Angelica Cantanti Youth Choir.
Opinions on conductor Osma Vänskä’s cycle of Mahler symphonies with the Minnesota Orchestra have varied, but with this grand finale, taken from his valedictory appearance with the orchestra, he seems to have let his hair down a bit, with satisfying effect. Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E flat major (“Symphony of a Thousand”) is itself a work that divides listeners, with some sympathetic to the composer’s grand ambitions and others finding it over the top, with its four choirs, 24 brass, its Christian first half from the Jewish composer, and its Faustian paean to the eternal feminine for a finale. A lot can go wrong in performing it, and here, in this 2022 recording, a lot did. Minneapolis was still under COVID mask restrictions when the performances were given, and the choral singers (not quite a thousand, but numerous enough) wore them and were exhorted to enunciate to the maximum. The originally booked first soprano contracted the disease and was replaced at the last minute by Carolyn Sampson, taking both soprano parts (which is, it is true, done often enough). Vänskä rises above the problems with a performance that even skeptics will find exciting. He balances the tremendously diverse forces beautifully, and each of the two sections builds, in Vänskä’s fast but not rushed tempos that bring the symphony in at five minutes quicker than average, to convincing conclusions. The final sections are ecstatic, and all the soloists hold their complex interactions together. Sampson emerges as the star of the show; she is one of the most versatile sopranos on the scene, and she is not known much in music of this heft, but she sounds great. Vänskä, as elsewhere in this series, gets fabulous support from BIS engineers; one hears everything, and one often has the sensation of being right in the middle of the vast, churning music. The audio product is an unusual one, assembled from live performances at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis and later ones in the studio, but the BIS staff sweats these details, and it is a challenge to hear any joints or manipulations. This is indeed a landmark Minnesota Orchestra recording and one that leaves the group well-positioned for whatever comes next. It landed on classical best-seller charts at the end of 2023.