Mahler, G.: Symphony No. 8,

Classics Today 10/10.

Described by the composer as his "gift to the whole nation", Mahler's Eighth Symphony has had an equivocal reception even judged by the standards of his symphonies as a whole. Coming after three purely orchestral symphonies, each with its distinctive and provocative take on triumph and adversity, it might seem a throwback to his second and third symphonies, with their quirky though compelling hybrid of symphony and cantata. Yet … Read morethe Eighth Symphony, in many respects, is the most integrated and organic symphony that Mahler had yet attempted - the result, in large part, of a genesis whose sheer suddenness and rapidity took even its composer by surprise. Hide