Neue Musikfesthalle. Montag den 12 September 1910...Gustav Mahler: Achte Symophonie in zwei Teilen für Soli, Chöre, Orchester und Orgel. Very rare original program from the first performance of this majestic work in Munich on 12 September 1910, conducted by the composer himself. 8 pp. Light foxing to the edges, some pencil annotations throughout in an unknown hand, two hole punches along the left edge, else fine. 15.5. x 22.5 cm. 


The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is generally performed with fewer than a thousand, and Mahler himself did not sanction the name. The work was composed in a single inspired burst, at Maiernigg in southern Austria in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the symphony's first performance which he conducted at Munich’s newly constructed Musik-Festhalle, before an audience of 3000 to 3500, was a critical and popular success.