Friday, September 11
12 noon
Just in time to mark the anniversary of the world premiere of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8, the so-called "Symphony of a Thousand," we'll broadcast a brand-new recording, just released on August 25th, of this gargantuan work with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony, soloists and choruses.
Recording this work was an enormous undertaking.
The symphony was an immediate success at its first performance on September 12, 1910 (one of the only times Mahler experienced a successful premiere) and garnered worldwide attention. Among those in the audience that day was Leopold Stokowski, who considered it one of the greatest compositions of the 20th century, and conducted the U.S. premiere of the symphony in March, 1916 in Philadelphia.