Monday, May 11, 2026
Wiener Konzerthaus
Andris Nelsons completed his Vienna Philharmonic Mahler cycle with the so-called ‘Symphony of a Thousand’, to crown an integral captured by Deutsche Grammophon for release as a set in October. Whether it includes Das Lied von der Erde, the designated Symphony that Mahler composed between the work under discussion and the Ninth, I know not, although Nelsons has conducted it with the Philharmonic, as he has the Adagio from the Tenth. DG has at least three Mahler cycles on its books – Abbado, Bernstein, Boulez – and the Nelsons should complement them nicely, and can be sampled on the STAGE+ website.
This Nelsons Eighth (I believe it was the third consecutive performance) – which I had intended to review from the live relay on the evening itself if denied me by an administration hiatus, and which would have made an interesting counterpart to the night-before’s Blomstedt Mahler Nine, opened with a fiery burst of energy for the ‘creator’ movement that, wholly, was urgent, lyrically entrancing and impassioned, three-dimensional in terms of well-judged balance between the vocal soloists, orchestra, and well-prepared choirs, and how confident the trumpeters were negotiating the challenging high notes. The ‘Faust’ second part was atmospheric, solemn, dramatic and operatic, the soloists, having sung oratorio-style previously now presented vivid Faustian characters, and it was good that Nelsons respected Mahler’s request for boys’ voices (as in Symphony Three, or Britten’s War Requiem) rather than adding (ticking the PC box) to the composer’s requirement with girl choristers, which would have altered this specific timbre to disadvantage. There were ravishing moments, as if bathed in moonlight, and ardent ones, and others, all brought together – reconciled – by a gloriously opened-out coda, resonantly underpinned by the organ that had set this magnetic account in motion eighty minutes and more earlier.
Jacquelyn Wagner (Sopran), Sarah Wegener (Sopran), Ying Fang (Sopran), Beth Taylor (Mezzosopran), Tamara Mumford (Mezzosopran), Benjamin Bruns (Bariton), Michael Nagy (Bariton), Tareq Nazmi (Bass)
Wiener Philharmoniker, Wiener Singakademie, Wiener Singverein, Vienna Boys Choir
Andris Nelsons
Mahler Eight/Nelsons on STAGE+ (subscription needed)…
https://www.stage-plus.com/de/video/vod_concert_APNM8GRFDPHMASJKBSOJ4DHL