The landmark 80th edition of the Prague Spring Festival culminates with Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand

The 80th edition of the Prague Spring International Music Festival is drawing to a close with a grand finale: a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, conducted by Semyon Bychkov on 2 and 3 June. The monumental work will be performed in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House by the Czech Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, the Prague Philharmonic Choir, the Kühn Children’s Choir, and soloists Sarah Wegener (soprano), Kateřina Kněžíková (soprano), Miriam Kutrowatz (soprano), Stefanie Irányi (mezzo-soprano), Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano), David Butt Philip (tenor), Adam Plachetka (baritone), and David Leigh (bass).

“I am obsessed with this symphony. I wouldn’t conduct it if I weren’t,” says Semyon Bychkov of the Eighth Symphony. Mahler composed the piece in just ten weeks in the summer of 1906. In it, he combined the Latin hymn Veni creator spiritus with the final scene from Goethe’s Faust, as an expression of the connection between Christian faith and Goethe’s symbolic vision of humanity’s redemption through love. At the time, Mahler feverishly described the work not as music of voices, but of suns and planets.

The “Symphony of a Thousand” was the last of Mahler’s works to premiere during his lifetime. Its first performance took place on 12 September 1910 in Munich, in the Neue Musik-Festhalle, with an audience that included composers Richard Strauss, Camille Saint-Saëns and Anton Webern, conductor Leopold Stokowski – who would lead the American premiere six years later – and writer Thomas Mann. Deeply moved by the work, Mann wrote to Mahler, calling him a man who “expresses the art of our time in its most profound and sacred form.” The premiere featured 858 singers and 171 instrumentalists, inspiring the nickname Symphony of a Thousand, coined by Munich impresario Emil Gutmann.

The Prague Spring Festival has presented the Symphony of a Thousand only twice before: in 1993 at St Vitus Cathedral under Jiří Kout, as part of the European Cathedral Concerts series (with two performances), and in 2011 at the O2 Arena under Christoph Eschenbach.

The upcoming 2025 Prague Spring performances will feature an exceptional cast of soloists, including Sarah Wegener, who has sung the Eighth under Kirill Petrenko, Kent Nagano and James Conlon; and Gramophone Award winner Jennifer Johnston, who has performed Mahler’s Second and Third Symphonies with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä, and with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic under Franz Welser-Möst. The tenor part will be sung by British star David Butt Philip, who has made acclaimed debuts at Covent Garden, the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Performers at the 2025 Prague Spring Festival

Czech Philharmonic
Semyon Bychkov (conductor)
Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno
Joel Hána (choirmaster)
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Lukáš Vasilek (choirmaster)
Kühn Children’s Choir
Jiří Chvála (choirmaster)
Sarah Wegener (soprano)
Kateřina Kněžíková (soprano)
Miriam Kutrowatz (soprano)
Stefanie Irányi (mezzo-soprano)
Jennifer Johnston (mezzo-soprano)
David Butt Philip (tenor)
Adam Plachetka (baritone)
David Leigh (bass)

The Prague Spring performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 will take place on 2 and 3 June at 8:00 p.m. in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House.