Starting points

To understand how the impossible is possible, listen to how stirring Mahler’s Eighth can be even on recording. The most ravishing is the 1975 DVD of an elated Leonard Bernstein in Vienna. His audio recording from Salzburg that year or his earlier one in London are also exceptional. Gustavo Dudamel conducted the world’s largest Mahler Eighth in Caracas eight years ago with a combined Los Angeles Philharmonic and Simón Bolívar Symphony, and more than 1,000 student singers. On video, even the camera jumps for joy. There is special meaning for our current moment, with people of color making up more than 90% of the performers. Atop eight minutes of applause, scroll the names of all 1,400 performers. Pierre Boulez, by the way, made an admirably lucid recording of the Eighth too.