Editorial Review
Superb authoritative edition of massive, complex "Symphony of a Thousand." Powerful synthesis of motet, dramatic cantata, oratorio, song cycle and symphony, scored for an ensemble of orchestra, eight solo voices, a double chorus, a boys' choir, and organ. Unabridged republication of the edition published by Izdatel'stvo "Muzyka," Moscow, 1976. Translation of texts. Glossary.
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Customer Reviews
It's the full, complete score 
2007-09-19
I'm getting older, so I need to use glasses when reading music now. This score isn't the same as having the score in sheet music on your stand, where the typeface is larger. So using it to play would be difficult, in my opinion. You'd want the sheet music if you were performing it. However, as other reviewers so well noted, this score is excellent for those who know how to read music but haven't performed this piece (unfortunately, including me too). It's amazing when listening to Mahler's 8th how much is going on that you don't hear in a recording. Even if you've had the priveledge of hearing it performed live (a rarity since it requires massive orchestral and choral forces, not to mention other instruments, and that cost $$$), you still cannot take in every musical nuance that is going on. Having the score in front of you while listening brings this out. For me, I can't even imagine how Mahler conceived and wrote this piece; it is so complex and moving. And to know that he received such incredible praise at its debut, the orchestra applauding and the children's choir singing his name at fff as he passed them, when he didn't have much praise as a composer warms the heart. I would have given anything to have been in the audience at the debut performance, with artist luminaries, dignataries and royalty present. I guess it was destined that he died within a year of writing it.
As some reviewers said earlier, this score is indespensible for starving college students and musicians.
Mahler 8 full score and libretto 2007-06-11
This is the complete unabridged score for full orchestra, choirs and soloists. Presented in 256 pages with accompanying text and translation, glossary, and instruments and voices, this would be the conductor's copy.
The opening organ chord fills the air with such tremendous expectancy that one senses that this is a piece of music quite unlike any other. As the music unfolds and the choir make their entrance into the foray, I am suddenly conscious in a way I have never noticed before, as if I'm about to embark on a journey into unknown and unfamiliar regions of my mind. The first movement appears to describe death of the glorious kind, and for those twenty six minutes I am transported to a world that would embrace the very nature of Heavenly arrival.
Following the score while listening to the actual sound, and one is liable to get lost in the technicalities, especially since the choirs are not always singing the same thing at the same time. Sometimes they sing words and phrases that are unexpected. Best to forget the manuscript and just listen to the music. It is, after all, what Mahler would have wanted.
The Greatest of all symphonies 2003-05-06
I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. Mahler's 8th is the best symphony ever written. This score while in small type, shows you how Mahler put it all together and does it very clearly. The text translations are given but not much else. There isn't any sort of analysis or in depth commentary, just the music. This is an excellent deal for such an amazing piece. Great for theory students and college musicians wanting to learn a thing or two about composition.
Mahler's Immense Symphony of a Thousand 2002-01-24
As a music student, this score was a great score to own: the large print make it very easy to read the numerous lines of instrumentation; the low cost is a must for a starving college student.
This is an EXTREMELY difficult work to study, even if there is a recording. The work is so immense and at the same time complex. Just looking at the first page is tiring.
I reccommend this score highly for music students and music lovers alike so that they may enjoy Mahler's monumental Symphony of a Thousand.
The biggest and most powerful symphony ever written 2001-06-27
This symphony is so big, that if one has any chance to read the score while listening to it, do it! The score has revealed so many details about this great work that my opinion about it has changed totally! At first when I heard this, all I could hear was the song, and it didn't tell me anything, but now with the score in hand, I can see the different melodies used with the cross-references all over, and I can follow the progress of the sonata form in the first movement, which is so ingeniously developed that one can barely trace it, but it still follows a very logical consistency. All this I could only see when I read the score! Now this is one of my very favourite works of music!
Symphony of a Thousand 2000-06-17
Superb authoritative edition of massive, complex "Symphony of a Thousand." Powerful synthesis of motet, dramatic cantata, oratorio, song cycle and symphony, scored for an ensemble of orchestra, eight solo voices, a double chorus, a boys' choir, and organ. Unabridged republication of the edition published by Izdatel'stvo "Muzyka," Moscow, 1976. Translation of texts. Glossary.
