One of the glories of Asher Fisch’s tenure as Principal Conductor of the West Australian Orchestra has been his ongoing traversal of Mahler’s symphonies. On Friday night, it was finally time to confront Mahler’s gargantuan Eighth Symphony, the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand.”

As Fisch wrote in his program note: “Though sometimes performed in stadiums and arenas, I believe a performance in the unmatched acoustics of Perth Concert Hall is the perfect way to experience this awe-inspiring masterpiece.”

And indeed, the sonic effect of around 400 musicians – eight soloists, five massed choirs and an expanded orchestra and organ – successfully grappling with such a choral and symphonic colossus was something to behold.

West Australian Symphony Orchestra performs Mahler 8 at Perth Concert Hall. Photo © Daniel James Grant

The huge diptych that is Mahler’s Eighth, remarkably composed in just eight weeks in 1906 and first performed in Munich in 1910 stands connected to and in contrast with his Second Symphony, the “Resurrection”. For while the earlier work explores the individual’s search for a death-transcending epistemology, the Eighth offers a universal view of humanity’s union with the divine, its two parts representing...