Mahler Symphony No. 8

Mahler Symphony No. 8 with Ricardo Chailly conducting the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the following vocal groups (1) the Chor des Bayersichen Rundfunks (Bavarian Radio Choir), (2) the Latvian Radio Choir, (3) the Orfeón Donostiarra (famous Spanish choir), and (4) the Tölzer Knabenchor (Tölzer Boys Choir). Also stars sopranos Ricarda Merbeth (Magna Peccatrix), Julia Banse (Una poenitentium), Anna Lucia Richter (Mater gloriosa), contralto Sara Mingardo (Mulier Samaritana), mezzo Mihoko Fujimura (Maria Aegyptiaca), tenor Andreas Schager (Doctor Marianus), baritone Peter Mattei (Pater ecstaticus), and bass-baritone Samuil Youn (Pater profundus). Directed for TV by Ute Feudel; produced by Paul Smaczny. Released 2017, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio surround sound. Grade: NA

This was performed in the Concert Hall of KKL Luzern as Chally's first performace with the Lucern Festival Orchestra. It also completes the Lucerne Festival Orchestra cycle of all the Mahler symphonies begun by the late Claudio Abbado. All these forces (358 by one count) were crammed in on the stage and rear balconies of the KKL Luzern Hall without encroaching on the audience.

Here's the official YouTube clip:

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.