'It is the best thing I have ever done,' said Mahler of his Eigth Symphony – for which the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and its Principal Conductor Thomas Søndergård tonight forces with no fewer than five choirs.
One of the grandest symphonic statements of the repertoire, concluding with a dramatic setting of the mystical closing scene from Goethe's Faust, it's mammoth scale matches the impressive space of the Royal Albert Hall.
There will be no interval
Please note that Christine Rice, the previously d mezzo-soprano, has had to withdraw owing to illness. The BBC Proms is very grateful to Marianne Beate Kielland for taking her place at short notice.
Image: Morris Robinson © Laurence Brownlee