performances
19:00
Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is on the stage of NOVAT!
The music director and chief conductor of NOVAT, Mikhail Tatarnikov, presents a new program for the Grand Symphony Concert, which will comprise one of the most ambitious works in the world’s symphonic repertoire.
The concert will feature the Symphony Orchestra, the Choir, the Choral Studio “Per Aspera…”, and the Children’s Choir of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, as well as the theatre’s soloists, the Choral Capella of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, the Choir of the Vocal Department of the Music College named after A. Murov, and Honoured Artist of Russia Olga Volkova (violin). The performance is being held as part of a collaboration agreement between NOVAT and the Novosibirsk State Philharmonic and will be one of the largest joint projects of the city’s two leading musical ensembles.
Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, first performed in Munich on September 12, 1910, under the author’s direction, occupies a special place in the history of world music. The composer combined a symphony, a cantata, and an oratorio in one grandiose work, creating a large scale musical canvas for a large orchestra, choir, children’s choir, and soloists. Mahler himself emphasized the truly universal scale of his work. In a letter to the Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg, Mahler wrote: “I have just finished my Eighth Symphony. – It’s the greatest thing that I have yet done. And so individual in its content and form that it cannot be described in words. Just imagine that the Universe begins to ring and resound. These are no longer human voices, but circling planets and suns…” Due to its exceptional performing forces, the composition received the unofficial title of the “Symphony of a Thousand.”
The performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony at the NOVAT will be a rare event in the concert life of Novosibirsk and will allow listeners to hear one of the most significant works of symphonic music of the 20th century in the combined sound of the orchestra, choir, and soloists.