THE EIGHT

The Eighth Symphony was going to be different from anything Mahler had ever done before: it would speak in different tones, and of a different kind of experience. The world premiere in Munich in the summer of 1910 was the artistic breakthrough for which the compos er had yearned all his adult life.Stephen Johnson recounts the symphony's far-reaching effect on composers, conductors and writers o f the time. Placing Mahler within his world, The Eighth reassesses Mahler's work in the context of the prevailing thought of his age , but al...[Read more]