Mahler: Symphony No. 8 - Final

[TheLastOfTheFinest80]

Solti has always done a fantasic job conducting Mahler, but I when it comes to the Mahler 8, Jascha Horenstien 1959 recording with the London Symphony is the gold standard.

[pete1404]

Bud Herseth at his best.

[celofelo]

i'm trying to listen to all of the mahler symphonies bc im a dork and they are freaking life changing. i recently picked this one up from my library and took it on a road trip, never having heard it before. got to the ending, had to pull over bc awesomeness>my ability to maintain control of the car

[Ranokian]

Thanks for uploading! Its amazing

[Unbihexium]

Well, the picture of Mahler's grave is not exactly what I'd expect at the end of the 8th symphony.

[MegaDocalex]

And I love the last picture!

[MegaDocalex]

Really the best. Please everyone, stop to bash on Solti, he is one one the best conductor, and surely one of the most powerfull ever!

[biggerthanyourface1]

When Sholti was rehersing this in Chicago a friend snuck me into the hall and for many evenings I sat almost alone (there were a few others up front) in the hall listening to all the rehersals. I will never forget this incredible experience. and then to hear it all come together with his direction opening night.....well, just listen.

[fledgehog]

7:22 ORGANGASM

[PickledHarrrington]

The sound of the brass section at 8:07 is so immensely rich and powerful! Yes!!!

[Triplefunk85]

@PickledHarrrington it's almost as if they are an organ themselves.... 

[Triplefunk85]

You will not find a more powerful Brass Section than the one CSO has.

[mvuorsalo82]

I am a Christian, but I do think that this is music as close to whatever idea we have of "heaven" anyone might have, and NO OTHER COMPOSER came CLOSE to this portrayal of "heaven", "paradise", "Nirvana", or Whatever you may call it, this music is IT!

[irenecabrejos33]

The indescribable is here achieved!

[jerchiury]

epic!

[TheVaccumtube]

A very robust & rich performance under Georg Solti's baton... chorus elicited a very strong emotional force. A very fine recording, very touching indeed.

[mahler151]

The part starting at 4:23 stops the world every time it plays...

[jerchiury]

this is the most epic recording of the piece.Sir Solti really bring magic.

[colinmusik]

The most beautiful sounds I've ever heard

[dfp3792]

la obra más magnánima que se haya podido oir en la historia de la música

es la combinación de emociones, sentimientos, unidos con episodios melancólicos, pero que al final terminan con un final más allá de lo apoteósico

Absolutamente sublime!!! Mahler te mereces la gloria en tu 150 aniversario de tu nacimiento, y el año que viene más aún en el centenario de tu muerte.

Sin duda, el mejor sinfonista de todos los tiempos. Viva Mahler.

[Lassannn]

Atheists are the most miserable people on the planet. They hear this music and then get pissed because it's really great, but it was inspired by God. So then they refuse to put up with it from then on, like it's terrible. They're a bunch of pouty kids that never grew out of their own self-centeredness, just got bigger.

This music is some of the finest, most glorious Gospel-inspired music you're ever gonna hear, and it's no proof of God, but it's a sight more than any atheist contributed.

[rkc2380]

@Lassannn just a question and i ain't being disrespectful at all: wasn't Mahler himself an atheist?

[Lassannn]

@rkc2380 No, he was a Jew who converted to Catholicism. Many critics say because he needed to get published, and Jews couldn't, but the religion part wasn't the problem. Racially he was a Jew, and his conversion would not have helped his career very much. He converted for real.

[rkc2380]

@Lassannn really aprreciate the information and again I was not trying to insult you as you are entittled to your own opinion.

[Lassannn]

@rkc2380 No problem.  Not offended.

[mahler151]

@rkc2380 It's generally accepted that Mahler's religion approached something similar to Pantheism.

[rkc2380]

@mahler151 I was thinking about that also but was never able to find an appropriate way of explaining, thank you for your insight.

[MIFFLISH]

@Lassannn Not true Lassannn! I'm an atheist and I just see this as beautiful music and nothing else. I'm very aware that Mahler's works, as well as many other composer's (Bruckner) work is inspired by the gospel, and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm just thankful of the beautiful music they produced. And I respect their influences. I also find myself listening to a lot of southern baptist gospel. Doesn't stop me cus is religious. Its good music, and I love it.

[rkc2380]

@MIFFLISH and we should not forget some of the most important figures in world history were atheists such as Sigmund Freud, Theodor Herzl, Percy Shelley, Betrand Russell and others.

[longeaton34]

@MIFFLISH Huge thanks for posting this - it is a truely marvellous sound - Solti has achieved the most sensitive recording of this I have heard. I have heard things in this I have not heard before eg the sustained bass notes at 8:00 just before the choir's final cadence and the organ final entry at 7:20. Just spine-tingling

[gunghoseesaw]

@Lassann ugh, that's a ridiculous generalization and a completely uneducated take on mahler... the 8th symphony is divided into two parts with the first part being a thousand year old hymn and the second half being the final part of goethe's faust put to music- he felt that both writings emanated the same feeling. also, he was influenced heavily by nietzsche and wagner, and at the time of this composition, was reading a substantial amount of ruckert (a german poet influenced by eastern thinkers)

[MarkMoon936]

@Lassannn not all atheists but i agree with your points

[oscarnodiaz]

@Lassannn Actually, I'm an atheist and this music makes me wish I was religious

[billyboylb]

@Lassannn Really? The most Christ-like people I know tend to be atheists. Christianity has become an extremist religion in American held hostage by right-winged republican crazies like Michele Bachmann. Jesus was great, but Christians are usually the most miserable people I meet. I'm not sure why because Jesus seemed pretty cool.

[sportsperson7]

@billyboylb well, the right wing republican thing isn't true at all. there is no reason to bring politics into religion. or the other way around. you are meeting the wrong Christians too. we aren't all "extremist". Muslims who blow up buildings and kill 3000 people are extremists (not all Muslims, but the ones who do...)

[billyboylb]

@sportsperson7 I know they're not all crazy. I know a lot of liberal and moderate Christians as well, but the conservative politicians are WAY far too extreme for my taste. I also know a couple of wonderful Muslim people.

[ScaldingHotSoup]

@Lassannn I'm an atheist and this is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. The source does not matter, only the beauty

[Unbihexium]

@Lassannn Sorry to say, but you should know that theologians and musicologists mainly agree this Mahlerian concept maybe "spiritual" and "inspired" newertheless has nothing to do with the teachings of the Christian church(es). Even you might have heard of the ironycal and ambiguous nature of this and other pieces. But yes, the most human is one whatever you call it/him/her. (In my humble opinion the "Das Ewig-Weibliche" is of huge importance, and this kind of heavenly wedding is...

[Unbihexium]

@Unbihexium ...regarded as heretic. So much more to tell, but it is important to see the difference between religious and spiritual, theist and gnostic, agnostics are even further away.

[Boywholuvsanna]

What recording is this?

[rkc2380]

@Boywholuvsanna it believe the '71 recording with Sir Georg Solit and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

[paulybarr]

@Boywholuvsanna This is the great Solti recording with the Chicago Symphony, recorded in1971 in Vienna. One of the great recording triumphs of all time.

[plainspoken]

my heart melts every time.

[horngeek8D]

one of the most incredible musical moments. ever.

[Shota871]

Gustav Mahler - one of the greatest composers of Western Classical Music, if not THE greatest composer to ever grace our planet.

[longeaton34]

@Shota871 You are a one for sweeping statements, shota871! Mahler? The greatest composer to ever grace our planet, eh? Please remember that that title correctly belongs to J S Bach - founder of our western concept and understanding of harmony. But....taken in its correct period of late Romantic/20th century western - YOU ARE RIGHT! Mahler 8 is without a doubt the finest example of symphonic art we have been privileged to experience in the last 100 years.

[ValkiriouS]

EWIG~ EWIG~

[KaylaGoesRawrrr]

i love mahler <3

[MIFFLISH]

I put this up, just for you kayla. like i told you i would.

[KaylaGoesRawrrr]

Lovely! ;]

[Rhoaden]

@KaylaGoesRawrrr

Mahler was the great composer of the twenty century!!!

[Rhoaden]

@KaylaGoesRawrrr