With its enormous vocal, choral and orchestral forces, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, later to be dubbed ‘Symphony of a Thousand’, is one of the largest and longest symphonies in the active repertoire. Part One, inspired by the Whitsuntide Vesper hymn Veni creator spiritus, is an invocation to the Creator Spirit. Part Two, a setting of the closing scene from Goethe’s Faust, depicts Faust’s redemption through wisdom and love. “Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound”, was how Mahler himself described the impact of the closing pages of the Symphony.