Kirill Petrenko conducts Mahler’s Eighth Symphony 

“Upbeat”: Mahler’s Symphony No. 8
Programme notes and exclusive rehearsal footage
 

“Mahler combines madness, genius and an extraordinary gift for long, beautiful melodies,” says principal oboist Albrecht Mayer, who in this episode of Upbeat offers a personal introduction to Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. The video also provides unique insights into the rehearsal process with Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko.

Faster, Higher, Further
Monumental ambitions at the dawn of modernity

As the 19th century drew to a close, an unprecedented fascination with all things gigantic and record-breaking took hold. Skyscrapers, world exhibitions, or the first modern Olympic Games - all of them had to be huge. Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, with its immense dimensions, is a child of this era.

Mahler himself described his Eighth Symphony as “the greatest” thing he had ever done and placed it in a cosmic context: it was as if “the universe itself begins to sound and resonate,” he said — not human voices, but “planets and suns” revolving within it. At the premiere in 1910, held in Munich’s Neue Musik-Festhalle, a trade-fair building, the number of performers ran into four figures. The title “Symphony of a Thousand”, coined by the promoter for publicity purposes, was therefore factually accurate. This stirred memories of the English music festivals of the previous century, at which Handel’s oratorios were performed in London’s Crystal Palace by choirs of 4,000 singers to audiences of more than 20,000, or performances in Vienna of Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge on a similar scale.

It was an age of records and sensations. Not long after Wagner’s monumental Ring des Nibelungen was first performed in 1876, the modern skyscraper era began in Chicago; international shipping lines competed for the “Blue Riband” awarded for the fastest Atlantic crossing; from the mid-19th century onwards, world exhibitions transplanted half continents into their host cities; and at the Olympic Games, revived in 1894, athletes vied to go “faster, higher, further”. Industrialisation and technological progress made previously-unimaginable achievements possible, while capitalist ambition and the formation of nation states fuelled a spirit of relentless one-upmanship.

Little wonder, then, that cult of monumentality also infected the arts. The composer August Bungert sought to outdo Wagner’s four-evening Ring cycle with a Homeric world conceived to be performed in up to eleven parts — though only four were ever realised. Yet for Wagner and Mahler, the aim was never mere spectacle. Their richly-varied means of expression were indeed intended to overwhelm the audience, but more than that, to activate all the senses, to achieve the highest degree of receptivity, and thus to grasp the spirit of the world as a whole.

Biography

Kirill Petrenko

Kirill Petrenko has been chief conductor and artistic director of the Berliner Philharmoniker since the 2019/20 season. Born in Omsk in Siberia, he received his training first in his home town and later in Austria. He established his conducting career in opera with positions at the Meininger Theater and the Komische Oper Berlin. From 2013 to 2020, Kirill Petrenko was general music director of Bayerische Staatsoper. He has also made guest appearances at the world’s leading opera houses, including Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden in London, the Opéra national in Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the Bayreuth Festival. Moreover, he has conducted the major international symphony orchestras – in Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Chicago, Cleveland and Israel. 

Jacquelyn Wagner

The soprano Jacquelyn Wagner was born near Detroit into a family of musicians and studied at the Manhattan School of Music and Oakland University. A winner of numerous competitions (including the Francesco Viña International Singing Competition and the Renata Tebaldi International Voice Competition), she won widespread acclaim for her performance in the title role of Detlev Glanert’s Oceane at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and likewise for her role debut as Jenůfa at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Other important roles in her repertoire include Leonore (Fidelio), Violetta (La traviata), as well as the title roles in Arabella and Norma.

Golda Schultz

After studying at the Juilliard School in New York and at the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Golda Schultz achieved international success in such roles as the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Vienna State Opera, the Zurich Opera House and the Glyndebourne Festival; Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Salzburg Festival and at the New National Theatre Tokyo; and Adina (L’elisir d’amore) at the Metropolitan Opera. On the concert platform, the South African soprano has collaborated with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta, and Christian Thielemann.

Jasmin Delfs

Jasmin Delfs is a member of the ensemble of the Semperoper Dresden. She studied at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, was a member of the studio of the Bavarian State Opera, and completed the Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival, where she made her debut in 2022 as the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte). She also sang the role at the Vienna State Opera and the Berlin State Opera. Another important debut followed in 2024 as Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) at La Scala. She appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker for the first time in 2024, when Kirill Petrenko conducted Schönberg’s Die Jakobsleiter.

Beth Taylor

Beth Taylor received her training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Open University in Milton Keynes. The winner of the Gianni Bergamo Classical Music Award 2018 and a finalist of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2023 attended masterclasses with Sarah Connolly, Susan Graham, Thomas Allen, and Emma Kirkby. Engagements have taken the young Scottish mezzo-soprano—who made her debut at Carnegie Hall in May 2025—to the Glyndebourne Festival and Aix-en-Provence, as well as to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra de Lyon, and Brussels’ opera house La Monnaie.

Fleur Barron

The British–Singaporean mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron studied voice at the Manhattan School of Music and comparative literature at Columbia University. Last August she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen; in March she will appear for the first time with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. Fleur Barron enjoys a close collaboration with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, which she accompanied earlier this year on a concert tour with Daniel Harding.

Benjamin Bruns

Benjamin Bruns studied at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre and subsequently was a member of the ensembles of Theater Bremen, the Cologne Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, and the Vienna State Opera. He became known in such major tenor roles as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Siegmund (Die Walküre), and Florestan (Fidelio). His appearances have taken him to venues such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Scala, the Hamburg State Opera, and the Bavarian State Opera. He first collaborated with Kirill Petrenko in Munich in 2016, singing David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Gihoon Kim

Gihoon Kim studied in Seoul and in Hanover, where he was a member of the Young Ensemble at the State Opera. In 2021 the baritone gained worldwide attention as the winner of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Last season he made his debut as Schaunard in La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera and as Posa in Don Carlo at the Royal Danish Theatre—a role he subsequently also sang at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. At the Salzburg Easter Festival he will appear under Kirill Petrenko as Donner in Das Rheingold.

Le Bu

The Chinese bass-baritone Le Bu studied at the Manhattan School of Music and won first prizes at the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition in New York (2022) and at Operalia (2024). He appears regularly at the Metropolitan Opera. This season he makes his debut as Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Washington National Opera and as Gunther (Götterdämmerung) at the Atlanta Opera, and will also make his first guest appearances at the Royal Opera House and the Paris Opera. Under the direction of Kirill Petrenko, he will appear as Fasolt (Das Rheingold) at the Salzburg Easter Festival.
 

Rundfunkchor Berlin

Founded in 1925 and led by Gijs Leenaars since the 2015/16 season, the Rundfunkchor Berlin is one of the leading choirs of the international concert scene. Acclaimed for its wide-ranging repertoire, flexible and nuanced sound, precision, and striking expressiveness, the ensemble is a frequent guest with many leading orchestras. The choir’s partnership with the Berliner Philharmoniker began in the early 1990s and continues under chief conductor Kirill Petrenko, both in oratorios such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and in concert opera performances, most recently Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

Bachchor Salzburg

As one of Austria’s leading vocal ensembles, the Bachchor Salzburg has gained international recognition in recent years. It appears in concerts and staged productions at the Salzburg Festival and the Salzburg Mozart Week. Thanks to its stylistic flexibility, the Bachchor Salzburg can perform a diverse repertoire ranging from Renaissance vocal polyphony to music of the 21st century. Ongoing collaborations link the choir with Ivor Bolton, Leopold Hager, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Adam Fischer, and Ingo Metzmacher.

Staats- und Domchor Berlin 

The Staats- und Domchor Berlin was founded in 1465 and rose to prominence in the 19th century under directors such as Felix Mendelssohn and Otto Nicolai. Today the ensemble’a membership includes more than 250 boys and young men at various stages of vocal and musical training, with a repertoire that embraces sacred and secular vocal works from the Renaissance to the present day. The choir undertakes concert tours throughout Europe, to Japan, Israel, and the United States, and regularly appears with the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, and the Berliner Philharmoniker.