Mahler's Eighth

The final concert at the 2024 Bergen International Festival will be conductor Edward Gardner’s farewell concert.

Edward Gardner has been Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015 and will take over as Music Director of the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in August 2024. His last concert in the role of Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra will be during the Bergen International Festival, with the monumental Mahler's 8th Symphony in E-flat major on the programme.

Mahler's 8th is one of the greatest orchestral and choral works in the classical repertoire and is rarely performed. The work has been called the ‘Symphony of a Thousand’, and requires eight soloists and several choirs, in addition to the orchestra.

‘Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.’ the composer said of his eighth symphony. When the work was premiered in 1910, with Mahler conducting, it broke all the rules and boundaries of what symphonies could and should be.

Photo: Synne Sofi Bårdsdatter Bønes