Closing Concert

The 80th edition of the Prague Spring will culminate in a performance of arguably the largest-scale work in the classical concert repertoire. Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) for eight soloists, two mixed choirs, children’s choir and a vast orchestra with organ earned the subtitle “Symphony of a Thousand”. “Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving,” wrote Gustav Mahler shortly after completing the work. The mammoth task to conduct the Czech Philharmonic in this full-length work was entrusted to Semyon Bychkov, who is regarded as one of the greatest Mahler conductors on the scene today. It was with a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 that he assumed the post of Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic in 2018. He states the following: “Mahler is a very interesting case because, for the rest of the world, Mahler happens to be an Austrian composer whereas, for me and my colleagues in the Czech Philharmonic, this is Czech music.” The performance of Mahler’s magnum opus with eight stellar vocal artists and three of the finest Czech choirs promises to be the true zenith of the Prague Spring 2025.