GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911)
Symphony No. 8 in E-flat Major, Symphony of a Thousand (1906/1907)
Where does one begin to describe Mahler’s bigger-than-life “Symphony of a Thousand”? Its premiere in Munich on 12 September 1910 featured soloists and choruses numbering around 858, and an orchestra of 171…plus Mahler conducting, for a grand total of 1,030. It was Mahler’s impresario, Emil Gutmann, who organized the event and came up with the marketing-tinged gimmick of the nickname. Mahler hated it, but the name stuck. 3,400 people were in the audience at Munich’s International Exhibition Center that night, including luminaries in their own right, such as Richard Strauss, Bruno Walter, Max Reinhardt, Thomas Mann, and Camille Saint-Saëns. The symphony, dedicated to “my dear wife, Alma,” is of epic proportions in more than just sheer forces required to perform it. It is about 80 minutes long and is divided into two parts: Part 1 is a setting of the Latin hymn “Veni, creator spiritus (“Come, Creator Spirit”), attributed to Hrabanus Maurus, the 9th century archbishop of Mainz; and Part 2 is set on a text that comes from the final scene of the dramatic poem Faust, arguably Germany’s greatest literary work, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Still, Mahler adapted the texts, making them conform to the music he wanted to write. Hoping for inspiration in the summer of 1906 he retreated to his “hut,” where he did his composing, away from children, cackling chickens, and other noise makers. As he described it: “On the threshold of my old workshop the Spiritus creator took hold of me and shook me and drove me on for the next eight weeks until the greatest part of my work was done.” That ferocious driving force of inspiration is unleashed in the first section of the symphony. References to “kindling the light of reason” in the hymn connected for him to the ascension of redeemed souls to salvation in the final scene of Faust. Goethe’s Faust is best experienced in reading it—no retelling can do it justice—but suffice it to say for the purposes of understanding this symphony: Faust has reached 100 years and is ready to stop his ceaseless striving, saying, “Stay, moment, you are beautiful”—the words that will cede his soul to Mephistopheles, the Devil incarnate. But angels rescue his “immortal part,” and, with the intercession of penitent women, bear it higher and ever higher up to heaven, to the Virgin Mary. One of those women is Gretchen, the young girl Faust so heartlessly betrayed in Part 1 of the drama. The last eight lines, sung by a “Chorus mysticus,” sum up an entire world—ecstatically expressed in Mahler’s beatific music. Mahler writes about it to Alma: “That which draws us by its mystic force, that which every created thing…feels with absolute certainty at the very center of its being, that which Goethe here—again using an image—calls the Eternal Feminine—that is to say, the resting place, the goal, as opposed to striving and struggling toward the goal (the eternal masculine)—that is the force of love, and you are right to call it by that name.” And to a friend he described the overwhelming, celestial apotheosis: “Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. These are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving in their orbits.” An unforgettable ending to Maestro Maazel’s inspiring tenure at the New York Philharmonic.

Lorin Maazel, who has led more than 150 orchestras in more than 5,000 opera and concert performances, became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2002. His appointment came 60 years after his debut with the Orchestra at Lewisohn Stadium, then the Orchestra’s summer venue. As Music Director he has conducted seven World Premiere–NewYork Philharmonic Commissions, including the Pulitzer Prize– and Grammy Award–winning On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams; Stephen Hartke’s Symphony No. 3; and Melinda Wagner’s Trombone Concerto. He has led cycles of works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky; and he conducted the Orchestra’s inaugural performances in the DG Concerts series — a groundbreaking initiative to offer downloadable New York Philharmonic concerts exclusively on iTunes.

Mr. Maazel has taken the Orchestra on numerous international tours, including the historic visit to Pyongyang, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in February 2008 — the first performance there by an American orchestra, and an event watched around the world. Other recent tours have included Asia 2008 — to Taipei, Kaohsiung, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing; the May 2007 Tour of Europe; the November 2006 visit to Japan and Korea; the Philharmonic Tour of Italy in June 2006, sponsored by Generali; the two-part 75th Anniversary European Tour to thirteen cities in five countries in the fall of 2005; and residencies in Cagliari, Sardinia, and at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado.

In addition to the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Maazel is music director of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. A frequent conductor on the world’s operatic stages, he returned to The Metropolitan Opera in January 2008 for the first time in 45 years to conduct Wagner’s Die Walküre.

Prior to his tenure as New York Philharmonic Music Director, Mr. Maazel led more than 100 performances of the Orchestra as a guest conductor. He served as music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (1993–2002), and has held positions as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1988–96); general manager and chief conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper (1982–84); music director of The Cleveland Orchestra (1972–82); and artistic director and chief conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1965–71). He is an honorary member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic. On February 17, 2009, he will be named a Commander of the Legion of Honor by the government of France.

A second-generation American, born in Paris, Mr. Maazel was raised and educated in the United States. He took his first violin lesson at age five, and first conducting lesson at seven. Between ages 9 and 15 he conducted most of the major American orchestras. In 1953 he made his European conducting debut in Catania, Italy.

Mr. Maazel is also an accomplished composer. His opera, 1984, received its world premiere on May 3, 2005, at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was revived in the 2007–08 season at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and has been released on DVD by Decca.

Highlights of Grammy Award-winning American soprano Christine Brewer’s 2008–09 season include her return to The Metropolitan Opera as Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Ring cycle; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen and with the Staatskapelle Berlin and Pierre Boulez; Verdi’s Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson and with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis; concerts with the BBC Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis; and performances of Britten’s War Requiem in Dresden and at London’s Royal Albert Hall. She also performs R. Strauss opera scenes with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Donald Runnicles, sings Handel with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and closes the season in the title role of Gluck’s Alceste at Santa Fe Opera. Ms. Brewer’s recordings include Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass and Dvořák’s Te Deum with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Telarc); Dvořák’s Stabat Mater (Naxos); two recital recordings; Fidelio with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO Live); and Britten’s War Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kurt Masur (LPO Live). She last appeared with the New York Philharmonic on New Year’s Eve 2004 in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with Kurt Masur conducting, and will return in June 2010 to perform Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, conducted by the Philharmonic’s new Music Director, Alan Gilbert.

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Soprano Nancy Gustafson has performed at The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. In Europe she has appeared in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Geneva, Rome, Turin, Berlin, and at Paris’s Opéra Bastille, London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Milan’s Teatro all Scala. Ms. Gustafson is especially well known for her interpretations of Janáček operas, particularly the title role of Katya Kabanova, which she has performed at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera under Andrew Davis, and at Opéra Bastille. She sang the title role of Janáček’s Jenůfa at Covent Garden and at Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet under the baton of Simon Rattle, and returned to Glyndebourne as Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades. Other roles include the Marschallin in R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, and the title roles in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Salome. She performed in the world premieres of Deborah Drattell’s Nicholas and Alexandra opposite Plácido Domingo in Los Angeles, and in Lorin Maazel’s opera, 1984, at Covent Garden. Her recordings include Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Decca), as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Puccini’s La bohème (both for Teldec). Ms. Gustafson last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in December 2006, performing the Final Scene from Salome, conducted by Lorin Maazel.

Soprano Jeanine De Bique won first prize in the 2008–09 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, where she was also awarded the Paul A. Fish Memorial First Prize. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Ms. De Bique studied at the Manhattan School of Music, where she received her bachelor’s degree in 2006 and her master’s degree in 2008, studying with Marlena Malas and Hilda Harris, and coached by Warren Jones, Christopher Cano, and Tom Muraco. In spring 2009 she performs the role of Adele in J. Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus at the MSM, where she has also appeared in the title role of Handel’s Semele, Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Sister Constance in Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmelites, and Girl in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti. Her other operatic appearances include the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Sophie in R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Chautauqua Music Program; Yum Yum in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado with St. Louis Opera Theatre; Clara in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess on tour in Eastern Europe and Russia; and The Woman of the River in Tarik O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness with American Opera Projects in New York City. In spring 2010, Ms. De Bique will be an artist-in-residence with The Dallas Opera. This is her New York Philharmonic debut.

Mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips’s repertoire ranges from Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven to Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, and Mahler and works of present day composers including Jake Heggie, Michael Torke, and Aaron Jay Kernis. Ms. Phillips won acclaim at Canadian Opera, most notably as Fricka in Wagner’s Die Walküre and as Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Preziosilla in Verdi’s La forza del destino, and has also appeared The Met as Waltraute and Rossweisse in Die Walküre, and as Mrs. Alexander in Philip Glass’s Satyagraha. She has also sung in the Seattle Opera’s acclaimed Ring cycles (Wellgunde and Rossweise) and as the Composer in R. Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos for Barcelona’s Gran Teatre de Liceu. Ms. Phillips has sung Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Handel’s Messiah with numerous orchestras, and made her New York Philharmonic debut in the world premieres of Michael Torke’s Four Seasons and Aaron Jay Kernis’s Garden of Light in 1999. Mary Phillips holds degrees in both music and theater from Rhode Island College, and a master’s degree in music from Yale University.

American mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby’s 2008–09 season includes performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Seattle Symphony led by Gerard Schwarz; Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra; Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony with Leonard Slatkin and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; and Verdi’s Requiem with the Colorado Symphony and Jeffrey Kahane. She also makes her role debut as Ježibaba in Dvořák’s Rusalka at Boston Lyric Opera. Ms. Maultsby has performed frequently with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she appeared as Erda in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Siegfried and First Norn and Waltraute in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, all conducted by Zubin Mehta; and La Cieca in Ponchielli’s La Gioconda conducted by Bruno Bartoletti, and Pauline in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, led by Sir Andrew Davis. Recent concert appearances have included Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Robert Spano and with the Baltimore Symphony and Yuri Temirkanov, and Verdi’s Requiem with The Cleveland Orchestra and Mr. Welser-Möst. Nancy Maultsby, an alumna of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Center for American Artists, is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, and was a graduate student at Indiana University School of Music. She last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in December 2004, singing Handel’s Messiah led by Alan Gilbert.

Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey’s career has included performances in leading roles at major opera houses around the globe. In February 2009 he received Grammy Awards of Best Classical Album and Best Opera Recording for Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, with Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald, conducted by James Conlon. In the 2008–09 season Mr. Griffey performs leading roles with many of America’s premiere opera houses, including appearances with Opera Philadelphia as Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio; Portland Opera as Peter Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw; and San Diego Opera in the title role of Britten’s Peter Grimes. His concert schedule includes an appearance with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, led by Valery Gergiev, and performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen; San Francisco Symphony led by Michael Tilson Thomas; and Zürich Tonhalle Orchester with David Zinman. He will return to the Ravinia Festival for performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and James Conlon, and will perform Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Seiji Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic. In the 2007–08 season he returned to The Metropolitan Opera in the title role of Peter Grimes. Mr. Griffey last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in October 2007, performing the role of Guido Bardi in Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy, led by James Conlon.

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Bass-baritone Wolfgang Schöne has sung the title role in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer in Amsterdam, Cologne, Barcelona, and Hamburg; portrayed Dr. Schön in Berg’s Lulu in Paris, Cologne, Glyndebourne, Athens, Chicago, and Stuttgart; appeared as Lodovico Nardi in Schrecker’s Die Gezeichneten at the Salzburg Festival and Amsterdam, and as Amfortas in Wagner’s Parsifal in Amsterdam, Hamburg, Paris, Munich, Tokyo, and London. He has sung Mandryka in R. Strauss’s Arabella with Kiri Te Kanawa in Berlin and Dresden; Kurwenal in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in Montpellier; and Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in Tokyo and at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. Among his more than 70 roles are performances as Barak in R. Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, Jochanaan in R. Strauss’s Salome, the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the Wanderer in Wagner’s Siegfried, Germont in Verdi’s La traviata, Athanaël in Massenet’s Thaïs, and Beckmesser in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Mr. Schöne’s long association with the State Opera of Stuttgart began in 1973, and in 1978 he was awarded the title of Kammersänger in recognition of his achievements. He has appeared with numerous orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, in March 1985, singing Bach’s Magnificat, led by Rafael Kubelík.

Bass-baritone Jason Grant has appeared with the Mostly Mozart Festival in Mozart’s Mass in C minor, led by Louis Langrée, and at New York City Opera as Pooh-Bah in Jonathan Miller’s production of The Mikado, Dulcamara in Miller’s new production of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and as Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, among many other productions. In the 2008–09 season he performs Brahms’s A German Requiem with the Virginia Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic, led by JoAnn Falletta; Mozart’s Requiem and Zemlinsky’s Frühlingsbegrabnis with the Phoenix Symphony, led by Michael Christie; and he portrays Bonze in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol with the Atlanta Symphony, in Atlanta and at Carnegie Hall, led by Robert Spano. In summer 2009 he will perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Grant Park Music Festival led by Carlos Kalmar. In the 2007–08 season Mr. Grant made his New York Philharmonic debut in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, led by Kurt Masur, and that season also made his debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra as Don Fernando in Beethoven’s Fidelio, led by David Robertson. He last appeared with the New York Philharmonic in June 2008, portraying Angelotti in Puccini’s June 2008 Tosca, conducted by Lorin Maazel.

New York Choral Artists, a professional chorus founded and directed by Joseph Flummerfelt, has been heard with the New York Philharmonic in recent seasons performing repertoire ranging from Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time to Mozart’s Requiem. Among the memorable collaborations with the New York Philharmonic was the concert on September 20, 2001, of Brahms’s A German Requiem, commemorating the events of September 11. The chorus opened the Philharmonic’s 2002–03 subscription season performing the world premiere of John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic with Lincoln Center’s Great Performers. Other highlights of include participation in the 1995 New York Philharmonic concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, and a televised performance of the 1986 Statue of Liberty Concert in Central Park. The chorus performed Verdi’s Requiem with the Philharmonic in March 2006, conducted by Lorin Maazel, and in the October 5–6, 2006, and February 2009 Philharmonic concert performances of Ravel’s one-act opera, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, also conducted by Mr. Maazel.

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The Dessoff Symphonic Choir is an extension of The Dessoff Choirs, which was founded in 1924 by Margarete Dessoff. One of New York’s leading avocational choruses, the group is active in the city’s musical life, presenting its own concerts under music director James Bagwell and collaborating with ensembles ranging from the New York Philharmonic to the Kronos Quartet. Dessoff took part in the Philharmonic’s 2004 celebration of Charles Ives, and last season sang Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky at Carnegie Hall with Yuri Temirkanov, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York. Other recent engagements have been with the American Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, and NHK Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo, as well as in Tan Dun’s Water Passion After Saint Matthew. The group has performed frequently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival; Lincoln Center Festival; and Mostly Mozart Festival, including collaborations with the Mark Morris Dance Group and an appearance in the Live From Lincoln Center Emmy-nominated telecast of Mozart’s Requiem.

The Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BYC), now in its 17th season, is one of the country’s most respected children’s choruses. Led by founder and artistic director Dianne Berkun, BYC choristers study and perform a range of music in classical and nonclassical genres. The chorus has toured Russia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany; performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, and the White House. Other performance highlights include the 2003 New York premiere of John Adams’s El Niño with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen. BYC has also sung with artists such as Elton John, Barbara Cook, Lou Reed, John Legend, Judy Collins, Andrea Bocelli, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Its commissioning program has produced new works for youth chorus. BYC first performed with the New York Philharmonic in John Adams’s Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning On the Transmigration of Souls in 2002, and most recently, in June 2008, in a concert performance of Puccini’s Tosca, led by Lorin Maazel.