The London Symphony Chorus will join forces with the London Philharmonic Choir and London Philharmonic Orchestra under their Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski at the Royal Festival Hall for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire.  Because of the huge instrumental and vocal forces required, it is frequently called the “Symphony of a Thousand”, although the composer never sanctioned that title.  It has been a critical and popular success since its first performance in 1910 and has been compared to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 as a defining human statement for its century.

The evening promises to be a landmark in Vladimir Jurowski’s Mahler cycle with the LPO.

The concert will begin with the LPC singing Tallis’s 40-part motet (and choral masterpiece) “Spem in Alium”, a transcendent beginning to prepare the way for Mahler’s expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit.