!SING Symphony of a Thousand
Gustav Mahler conducts a rehearsal for the première of his Eighth Symphony (Munich 1910) / Photo: Munich City Archives
2010 will mark the centenary of the world première of Gustav Mahler's Eighth Symphony. This masterpiece on a monumental scale, featuring a huge symphony orchestra and choir, is a variation on that great Mahler theme, man's salvation through the power of transcendental love.
The première in Munich on 12 September 1910 involved 858 singers and 171 instrumentalists: not without good reason has it since borne the epithet "Symphony of a Thousand". Critic Theodor Adorno described it as a "weighty symbolic piece". Indeed, every performance of the work places the highest demands on the singers and instrumentalists. Together with orchestras and choirs from the Ruhr Metropolis, the Duisburg Philharmonic and RUHR.2010 will reconstruct the very first performance of this work exactly one hundred years later. A unique event!
12.9.2010, 6 p.m.
Kraftzentrale, Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park
Musical Director: Lorin Maazel
Choir Master: Alexander Eberle
With: Soloists from the opera houses of the Ruhr Metropolis:
Bochum Symphony Orchestra, Dortmund Philharmonic, Duisburg Philharmonic, Essen Philharmonic, New Westphalian Philharmonic Orchestra, Hagen Philharmonic Orchestra
Operatic Chorus and back-up choir of the Aalto Theatre/Essen, Dortmund Opera Operatic Chorus and back-up choir, Operatic Chorus of German Opera on the Rhine Düsseldorf/Duisburg, Theater Bielefeld Operatic Chorus and back-up choir, back-up choir of the Musiktheater im Revier/Gelsenkirchen, Bochum Philharmonic Choir, Duisburg Philharmonic Choir, Essen Philharmonic Choir, Hamm Music Society, Choir of the University of Witten/Herdecke, "Symphony of a Thousand" Project Choir, Aalto Children's and Youth Choir, Dortmund Choral Academy Boy's Choir, Essen-Steeler Children's and Youth Choir, Children's Choir of the Windrather Talschule Velbert Langenfeld, Children's Choir of the Church of the Resurrection Essen, Children's Choir of the Sterkrader Abbey Music School, Children's Choir of German Opera on the Rhine, Iecava Music School Children's Choir (Riga, Latvia), Children's Choir of the Clara Schumann Music School Düsseldorf
A co-production of the Duisburg Philharmonic and the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010.
Project sponsor: Ferrostaal AG
Further information can be found on the project webpage at: www.ruhr2010.de/sing/programm/sing-sinfonie-der-tausend.html
and at: www.duisburger-philharmoniker.de