March 17, 2024, 7 pm
LVSO Concert Hall
LVSO CONCERT HALL OPENING CONCERT
Symphony Concert
G. Mahler. Symphony No. 8 in E flat major ("Symphony of a Thousand")
Kaunas State Choir (conducted by Robertas Šervenikas)
Chorus of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre (conducted by Česlovas Radžiūnas)
Chorus of Children and Young People "Ąžuoliukas" (conducted by. Vytautas Miškinis)
Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Gintaras Rinkevičius
The Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Artistic Director and Chief of the Orchestra of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Orchestra. The newly reconstructed LVSO Concert Hall (former Vilnius Congress Hall), which meets the highest international standards and is the only one in Lithuania specially adapted for symphonic music, opens its doors. Maestro Rinkevičius has chosen one of the most magnificent works in the classical symphonic repertoire for the opening concert of the new hall - the Eighth Symphony by the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), also known as the "Thousandth Symphony" because of the huge number of performers.
The symphony was composed in the summer of 1906, during Mahler's stay in southern Austria at his lakeside villa. From the very beginning, the composer was convinced of the work's significance, and, rejecting the pessimism that pervaded much of his work, Mahler composed his Eighth Symphony as a monument to the eternal and immortal human soul. Originally intended to be a classical four-movement symphony, the composer later retained two movements: the first movement is based on the ninth-century Latin Christian hymn to the holy spirit, Veni, creator spiritus, while the second is based on the text of the final scene of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust. Both movements are united by the common idea that salvation is possible through infinite love.
In his memoirs, Mahler wrote that from the first day of his arrival at the summer residence, he was possessed by a creative spirit and threw himself fully into the work that would later become his Eighth Symphony. By chance, when he heard the hymn to the Holy Spirit, the composer had a vision of the work: "Suddenly I saw the whole work before my eyes. All I had to do was to write it down as if it were dictated." Mahler began to write intuitively, without waiting for the text of the anthem to arrive from Vienna. When the text finally arrived, it was an absolute match for the music.
Mahler had no doubts about the symphony's significance, stating that all the other symphonies he had written were only a prelude to this one. He called the Eighth Symphony the greatest thing he had ever done - his gift to humanity. "Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and echo. It is no longer the voices of men, it is the planets and suns revolving around," Mahler wrote.
